


The Last Sun

by Elle_chama



Series: Nissia Chronicles [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Magic, Elemental Magic, Elves, Eventual Romance, F/M, Genocide, Half-Elf, High Fantasy, Humans, Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Killing, Mages, Magical Artifacts, Orcs, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Original Fiction, Original Mythology, Original Universe, War, dragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:55:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29270616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elle_chama/pseuds/Elle_chama
Summary: Dragons are believed to be mindless creatures with the desire to hunt, collect, kill. In fact, most dragons are like this, which is why knights are honoured for their dragon kills. However, there were a precious few dragons that were unusually sentient, clever, even peaceful. When Calith, dragon slayer of twelve, comes across one of these rare dragons a new kind of light starts shining in his heart.(Updates every Monday)
Relationships: half-elf/dragon
Series: Nissia Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149998
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue and Reference text

* * *

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

On his deathbed, the Arch Cleric of the Sun Order had a vision, his heart was filled with dread. His last words were lost in his empty room.

"In the greatest of the merchant cities, the last scale will be conquered.

In the brightest hour, the day will be consumed by darkness.

The cursed will rise seeking the death of a king.

An unusual sun will bring new light into the world.

However...,

A pure race will vanish."

An adept entered the room right in time to hear the old man's very last words: 

"The last Sun... The last Sun must be protected."

* * *

Dragon's Physical Traits

* * *

_Sun-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of tall humans (about 12 to 13 feet), with four legs of the same size and wings that when fully open are twice their body size. They have a slim muscular build with long necks, ears and claws. The Sun-heart-scale is located on their back, at the base of their neck, right above the shoulder blades and has an inverted triangular shape with round edges. Their scales resemble a piece of glass filled with a luminous liquid that is always in movement, the heart-scale is more luminous than the regular scales. Their wings are similar to bat wings with a visible bony structure and a membrane of skin, which is also luminous resembling a rice paper screen lit by sunlight.

_Earth-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of average humans (about 10 to 11 feet), with four legs and no wings, a sturdy muscular build, short necks, small ears and claws. They have two long horns in their head in a U shape which they use to fight, and spikes along their back and tail, which ends in a spiky ball resembling a mace. The earth-heart-scale is located above their stomachs, right below their rib cages and has a very round drop shape. Their regular scales are small and brown, resembling a dry soil, while their heart-scale is a dark green that gleams like an emerald.

_Fire-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of average humans (about 10 to 11 feet), with two hind legs, their front legs are replaced by powerful wings that when fully open are 1.5 times their body size also resembling a bat wing with a visible bony structure and red coloured membrane. They have a long slim body with short necks, strong large claws and tiny barely visible ears. The fire-heart-scale is located below the base of their wings on their back and has the shape of an elongated drop. Their regular scales are smaller than the heart-scale and have a deep red colour with incandescent tips, whenever another dragon is nearby these tips becomes more luminous and the scales themselves become warm; the heart scale resembles active lava in colour, also becoming brighter and warmer in the presence of other dragons. These effects minimise if the dragons are in their secondary shape.

_Water-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of tall humans (about 12 to 13 feet) with no legs or wings, but a serpent-like body. These dragons have fins along their backs, being larger closer to their heads, very short in the middle of their bodies and medium sized closer to the end of their tail also having poisonous spikes in their structure. The fins are mostly used as weapons or to swim but when water-dragons jump over water the fins allow them to plane for a short while. The water-heart-scale is located on their front at the base of their necks. Their regular scales are of a cerulean blue colour and have a faint gleam when in contact with water; their heart-scale resembles a luminous light blue aquamarine in a triangular shape with a rounded base and sharp edges.

_Copper-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of short humans (about 9 to 10 feet) with two hind legs, their front legs are replaced by powerful wings that when fully open are twice their body size also resembling a bat wing with a visible bony structure and copper coloured membrane. They have a short body and long slim legs designed for ground speed, their claws only have two fingers. The copper-heart-scale is located on their front right in the middle of their rib cages. Their regular scales are round edged and have a metallic pattern on a copper hue, their heart-scales have the shape of a square diamond and resemble a metallic-like quartz.

_Obsidian-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of short humans (about 9 to 10 feet) with four legs and no wings. They are slimmer than earth-dragons with small necks, ears, claws and shorter tail. Obsidian dragons have small spikes along their backs and throat and even though their tails are shorter than the other dragon races it ends with a scythe-like spike which is used slightly like scorpions use theirs. The obsidian-heart-scale is located at the base of their tail and has a long and slim four faced polygon shape with the face towards their tail being slightly larger than the face towards their head. Their regular scales are squared and often just perceived as pitch-black, but when in contact with light they have a faint multicoloured reflection depending on the angle of the light; the heart-scale is of a deep purple colour and resembles a translucent purple crystal.

_Platinum-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of average humans (about 10 to 11 feet) with four legs (two longer hind legs, two smaller front legs) and larger wings with a bony structure and membranes that resemble feathers and when fully open they are 2.5 times the size of their body. Platinum dragons have slim muscular bodies with a short neck and long tail and also long ears, they are the dragons that mostly resemble sun-dragons in shape. The platinum-heart-scale is located at the upper base of their wings, right in the middle of their backs. Their regular scales are small and round with a silvery metallic hue while their heart-scale has a sharp edged triangular shape and resembles a white crystal.

_Sun-Hybrid-dragons_

These dragons have twice the height of tall humans (about 12 to 13 feet) and have exactly the same shape of pure sun-dragons, differing from it only in the colour of the regular scales which are inherited from the other respective parent race. Hybrid dragons also have slightly different regular scales at the base of their wings and neck with tips glowing like a sun-scale. Their heart-scale has the same shape, colour and luminescence as sun-dragons, but the rounded edges have a frame in the same colour of the respective parent race. When creating or emanating light, all scales in their bodies gain luminous tips like sun-dragon scales.


	2. In the greatest of the merchant cities

_`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·_ ◦ _•_ ●◉● _•_ ◦ _·._.··´¯``·.¸¸.·´_

The sight of land made Calith feel a sudden excitement. Finding himself a spot a little higher, Calith watched the far-away docks. He had never seen so many piers or that many ships at the same place. It felt surreal that he was finally arriving at Merkadia, the greatest of the five merchant metropolis in the three great kingdoms. 

His six-years journey was finally coming to an end. He closed his eyes, breathing in the rather nauseating salty air of the ocean, and traced a red line over the map in his mind. He left Myr, the cold moonstone Metropolis, crossing Callam Canyon, taking the lonely road that connected Myr to Siltryn, the only merchant city in Eryas, the elven kingdom. It had taken him just a couple of weeks to cross from Siltryn to Elora, he would never forget that cross over the Siltryn Strait. Elora had been his first experience on a human dominated city, not that much different from his own homeland in terms of climate, the nauseating salty aroma of the ocean has always been part of his senses, he didn't really understand why he liked it so much, but not seeing elves everywhere had been such a blessing. Up until that point, he had left home without a real plan of action, he just knew he couldn't stay in Myr for another day. 

It was in Elora that he had first heard about the challenge the Sun Order had sent to the world. Whoever was able to kill all six races of dragons, and bring their heart-scales to a Sun Temple, would be awarded a Sun Blade and become a Sun Paladin. That was the kind of challenge he was hoping to find. The Dawn Temple was located to the south of Elora, in Ozarca, the orc's kingdom. He travelled there first, to make sure the challenge was real and to see his prize, a Sun Blade; it turned out to be a choice of the carrier, any white weapon would be powered by a sun-dragon scale which turns the blade unbreakable. Sun-dragon, the seventh dragon race, the extinct one. And like that, he spent a whole year in Ozarca, crossing mountains, deserts, and volcanoes hunting dragons. He had spent a month in Hallard, Ozarca's great merchant city to gather information on where he should go next. 

Ozarca only had two races of dragons, forcing Calith to move back into the human kingdom of Eldora. From Hallard, Calith had crossed the border and moved straight north until he reached Sledald, the cradle of human magic, a city that was prized for its libraries and magic schools. 

The races were quite balanced when it came to powers. Humans could manipulate natural forces, he even heard stories of mages that could control dead bodies; Orcs were resistant to pretty much anything, they could live underground or inside mountains and even withstand the heat from volcanoes, they were better adapted to dark places and most of their cities were sculpted in the mountains or built from scratch on the plains, they were the best blacksmiths of all kingdoms even having forges inside volcanoes; elves were rather strange, while orcs were brutes, elves were snakes; they had exceptional fighting skills, agility and balance, plus they had long, really long, lives and, for the less skilled elves, that was it. But there was another ability that granted the elves the title of Protectors of the Balance, elves could wield moonstones, a slightly transparent blue hued stone, that was the strongest element in the world; it could block any kind of magic, withstand the blows of any kind of weapon, easily kill any of the races as long as the wielder was powerful enough. Elves with that kind of power were considered the most powerful creatures of the planet, the Templars of Myr. He spit on the thought, looking out as Merkadia came closer and closer. 

Calith had spent five years in Eldora, hunting dragons and learning everything he could about human society. A much more pleasant place to live. Eryas was cold throughout most of the year. Ozarca was warmer but even with all the mountains and volcanoes the winter had been as cold as in Eryas. But Eldora? Eldora was a hot paradise, the southern portion that bordered Ozarca had beautiful plains and it would rain pretty much every day for a couple of hours; It felt like it was in a perpetual spring. The northern portion had massive forests, it was a whole lot more humid, and for a couple of months it was rainy throughout the whole day. More than hunting dragons, Calith was looking for a place to live, a nice city or village where he could bring his human mother and her new family - Calith's human step-father and a human younger brother. Other than Sledald, Calith tried life in three other big portuary cities: Cussard, Kahlm and Gardenia. Out of the three, he thought Gardenia would be the best place to live in. Cussard and Kahlm were two great merchant cities, there was always a lot going on there; but Gardenia was a city of artists, nestled between the ocean and the Feather Lake - strangely the only lake in Eldora that was not yet poluted; that place was just awfully beautiful, peaceful, his mother would love it there, especially since his step-father was a mason who did wonders when lower elves wanted their marble homes decorated as beautifully as the ones made with moonstones.

Gardenia was his chosen port, he already had the required scales, so his next destination would be Merkadia, the greatest merchant city, located in Brarehem Archipelago, the only neutral territory in the world as well as the only port that existed so one could reach the Twilight Temple. That was the place where Calith would find his most desired since for some reason the White Order of Justice destroyed the Dawn Temple.

The sword itself was meaningless to Calith, what he truly wanted was the Sun-dragon scale. Calith had worked very hard to have the right to be awarded that weapon - if there was a warrior worthy of getting that sword, it was him. Why? Because he, Calith, was a dishonoured half-elf. 

Calith's father was one of the most powerful Templars of Myr. His father had once been considered the greatest Templar Myr had seen in centuries, but he fell in disgrace for falling in love with a lowly human woman. Calith was rejected by the elves even before his birth, he grew up stigmatised for his mixed blood. 

His mother was considered a crazy human because when she was pregnant, she claimed the Goddess of the Moon had appeared to her, had blessed her child with enormous power for “The day the moon will embrace the sun." Nobody believed her until Calith started to bend moonstones when he was just months old.

Calith was more powerful than his father, if he wanted to, he could easily destroy Myr with just one thought, bending the whole city into nothing. He had expected to be honoured with a Templar title, but he was a filthy half-blood, all he got was to be accepted as an artisan to make cutlery and plates.

Enraged with how his family was treated by the almighty elves, Calith decided to prove how much his mother was right about him being blessed by a goddess, how right his father had been for teaching his son, instead of negating Calith's talents as the Hierarchs had ordered him to. Calith hated Myr, hated elves even more, and that was why when his younger brother was two years old, he decided to leave Myr to conquer the world. Even though he left without a plan, becoming a dragonslayer could bring him the glory he needed to show the elves how stupid they were for ignoring his powers and exiling his father to the outskirts.

“Here we are, ladies! The great Merkadia! Make sure to keep your treasures well guarded or you won’t know when it got stolen!” the captain announced as he manoeuvred the ship in an empty dock.

Calith stayed a while on the ship waiting for the most eager fellows to run to their destiny. When the ruckus to get down was gone Calith moved, jumping to the pier with grace and a wide grin. “Yes, here we are,” Calith mumbled to himself as he moved forward into the city.

Merkadia was completely different from Myr. It was not just bigger, the houses were made of stone and wood, in Myr all buildings were made of moonstones and marble. Myr was sparkly but monotone; Merkadia was colourful, the windows were mostly made of colourful stained glass, even the doors were painted with different colours; most of the roofs were domes made of greenstones. Merkadia was lively, there were always people walking around, talking, calling, announcing sales and promotional items, everybody seemed to be selling or buying. And all races had seemed to gather there. There were humans, elves, orcs… dragons.

Calith stopped and looked around. His heart was pounding fast. 

From his scale collection, Calith had a very special scale, it was from his third kill. A heart-scale of a fire-dragon, a kind that was known for its brutality against their own species, they have a special ability to know when another dragon is nearby because their scales would get warm. That particular scale served Calith as a dragon detector, making his travel around the world looking for different kinds of dragons a tad bit easier. 

How could there be a dragon in Merkadia? Calith walked carefully, paying close attention to every person that crossed his path. He saw a couple of elves staring at him, probably trying to figure out if he was a half-elf or not. There was a group of orcs carrying arcs, probably filled with white weapons. And there were a whole lot of humans, merchants, buyers, he even saw mages strolling down the road with their signature black robes. When he turned around, still looking for any sign a dragon was attacking the city, he saw three Sun Clerics walking away from his spot. It was a sight because people were actually opening a path for them, greeting happily. Looking away from them, he kept trying to identify any clue that could lead him to the dragon, but the fire-scale soon lost warmth. Maybe it was just a merchant with dragon eggs.

Calith felt quite dejected, but he kept himself on alert as he crossed Merkadia in the direction of the Desolation Bridge. Calith heard it was the only connection Merkadia had with the rest of the Brarehem Main Island, but he was not quite ready for what it really was: a narrow bridge suspended by ropes connecting the two islands. 

The unstable structure seemed nothing compared to what was on the other side. All Calith could see was a dense forest in front of the tallest mountains he had ever seen. Green at the footing, white in the middle, hidden peaks in the clouds. Those mountains were impossible to cross, it's said that surrounding the Brarehem Archipelago on a ship, those mountains were all that could be seen, that's why they were called the Brarehem Crown.

"Good luck." The guard at the bridge sneered as he saw Calith. "Are you applying to be a cleric?"

Calith grimaced back, he knew the look on the guard's face. He was looking down on Calith. His fair complexion, his slender body, if not for his silver hair, everybody would simply consider him a human, not even his ears were as pointy as half-elves. 

Calith sneered at his own thoughts. He had the power of a pure-blood elf, but the body of a fair looking human. Discriminated even among half-elves for his looks.

Calith was fed up with everybody looking down on him, so he reached a hand towards the bridge. "Not a cleric, but if they offer, I might accept becoming a Paladin," he replied. 

On his arm, he had a moonstone vambrace, the only piece of armour he was wearing suddenly turned into something like a snake twisted around his arm. Like a living liquid serpent, it moved from his arms to the bridge, expanding in size and creating a completely new bridge floor to walk on for about two meters. The guard recognised the stone even though he had never seen someone bending moonstones right in front of him.

As Calith walked the moonstone moved, paving his path as a solid floating magical ground. With the least swaying possible he crossed the Desolation Bridge and he felt he really reached desolation. That forest had an ominous feel. That was the last test for him to prove he was worth the Sun Blade.

He looked to the right. Far, far away he could see an elevated cliff pending over the ocean. On it was nestled the Twilight Temple, one of the two headquarters of the Sun Order, the clerics blessed with the Sun god’s powers. In its direction, Calith took firm steps. Whatever was inside that forest was no match for him. His moonstone came back to his arms, appearing to be a harmless piece of armour.

Calith walked for what felt like days, not just a couple of hours. When he saw the river up ahead, cutting his path in the form of thunderous waterfall sending sweet river water into salty ocean domains, he decided to take a break. Crouching at the river side, he threw some water on his face, wetting his hair and his chest in hopes to quench his body. Wanting to cool himself further, he stepped into the river where the waters were not yet absurdly turbulent because of the waterfall, but that had been a huge mistake. 

He felt a sharp pain on his leg before a water-dragon emerged, growling and ready to attack again. Calith raised his arms in a defensive gesture, his moonstone turned into a shield right in time to protect him from the Water-dragon's tail. Right after the impact, Calith shook his head. His vision had blurred, the sounds around him seemed to get distant with each passing second.

He could only see blurred colours when he was hit by the dragon's tail. He was sent flying and crashed against a tree, but he didn't feel the pain. He could only feel a terrible burn on his leg. He really hated water-dragons for they were the only ones his fire-heart-scale could not detect. What was a dragon even doing in a river? Weren't they supposed to only exist in the ocean?

Calith heard something that he assumed was the water-dragon’s last battle cry, which would also be the last thing he would hear. What a way for his journey to end, being killed by a damn dragon when he was almost by the Twilight Temple. As if he had not skilfully killed twelve freaking dragons before that day.

He was not clawed though, nor was he bitten or eaten half-alive. In fact, with the last of his senses, he felt someone lift him before his almost blind eyes could register an explosion of light.

Calith passed out.

 _`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·_ ◦ _•_ ●◉● _•_ ◦ _·._.··´¯``·.¸¸.·´_

Calith woke up inside a cave. 

He barely had the strength to open his eyes, but his body was sensitive again. He could feel the cold surface of stone under him. Calith was laying in some sort of pool because he could feel the cold soothing touch of still water. He couldn't hear anything because his face was the only thing above water. He didn't know how long he stayed in that position until he felt strong enough to sit.

The cave was huge, the opening was in front of him, but all he could see was the horizon over the ocean.

Calith first looked down at himself. Just like his clothes, his injuries were gone. With a frown, he picked something blue that was floating beside him. After inspecting the object he was sure it was a water-dragon scale. It was not a heart-scale, there was a bunch of regular scales on the water. 

A strange feeling of being in danger brought Calith to his feet. He looked around again. His clothes were folded in a corner, so was his bag where he kept his dragon heart-scales - the proof he needed to be awarded the Sun Blade. Close to his belongings were some wooden utensils, a bowl, a cup, and a spoon. 

He looked back as he heard footsteps. His mind instantly reached for his moonstones, but the only pieces that responded were those securing his heart-scales. His weapon was gone. He probably lost it while fighting the water-dragon.

He saw a black shape move in the darkest part of the cave.

"You shouldn't be up just yet. Water-dragon poison is very strong." A soothing young female voice reached him.

"Who are you?" Calith asked, his mind gripping the moonstones in his bag. If needed, he would use them, it would be enough to put some holes on whoever the shadow may be.

"The one that has saved you," The voice replied. "Rest. I'll go find something for you to eat. Finding food in this forest is a challenge."

Calith kept in his stance. He watched silently as the black shape advanced. Whoever had saved Calith was wearing a black cloak that completely hid her body, he couldn't see her hands or face.

The woman bypassed him without looking in his direction, but Calith felt some sort of warmth emanating from her. 

"Stay in the water. When it starts to get warm, means the poison had been completely expelled from your body." the cloaked woman added as she reached the cave opening.

"How can that be possible?" Calith retorted, looking down at the pool carved in the stone.

"Dragon scales are not only useful in the market. They can be used in many different ways. For example, water-dragon scales can be used to cure," The woman replied, stopping by the opening. "Don't leave before I get back. I would rather you not get lost in the forest, only to then fall unconscious again - with no one around this time, I might add." and with those words, the woman walked out of view by the right side of the cave.

Calith waited a few minutes before he sneaked out of the pool. He walked to the cave entrance. Each step boarded his view of the horizon. To his right he could see Merkadia, to his left he could see the Twilight temple. He was somewhere up the Brarehem Crown, almost half-way between the two inhabited portions of the archipelago. He looked over to where his saviour had gone to, to his surprise the black shape was moving fast, gracefully jumping down the mountain as if it was nothing. Too similar to the way the elves would climb the moonstone mountains surrounding Myr.

So his saviour was an elf, how wonderful. Calith turned around to gather his things and leave, but his fast move left him dizzy. His balance was gone, and he fell to his knees, once again feeling numb and his vision blurring.

After several deep breaths, Calith managed to get his senses back. Water-dragon poison was no joke. He wouldn't be able to climb down the mountain in that state. Slightly contradicted, Calith walked back to the pool, laying down, he shivered at how cold the water was.

Staring at the cave ceiling, an idea bloomed. If regular scales had healing effects, maybe a heart-scale was more effective. Calith reached for his moonstones with his mind, careful to pick only the water-heart-scale out of his bag. The item came floating towards him, nestling silently on his hand.

What an odd kill had been his first brawl with a water-dragon. He was on a ship crossing the Silewth Strait, he had boarded at Siltryn, the only elf merchant city, his destination was Elora city, in the human country of Eldora. The day had been bright, the wind was in their favour, the water was calm. Suddenly, a wave appeared out of nowhere and the captain shouted a water-dragon was attacking them. The aquatic beast was creating formidable waves in hopes of flipping the ship, free food. Warriors tried to counter-attack with spears, but there was so much they could do. 

When Calith saw the beast surfacing to really attack the ship, he acted on impulse. He located the heart-scale at the base of the beast's throat, he moulded it with his moonstone and once he had a firm grip he pulled the scale out, tearing other regular-scale and flesh out. The water-dragon cried in pain, but Calith was not satisfied, he created a moonstone spear and pierced the beast's neck. His first dragon kill was lucky. Nobody, not even the elves in the ship dared mock the half-breed anymore. Someone with that much skill controlling moonstones was not to be messed with, that was common knowledge.

Calith separated the moonstone from his heart-scale and let the shiny blue scale on the water. A soft luminescence came from the heart-scale, in some sort of wave, the closest regular scale shimmered too until all of them lit up. Calith's whole body relaxed until it was numb but in a strangely good way. He felt light. 

When the blue sky turned pink, Calith opened his eyes, he had not noticed when he had fallen back asleep, but he woke up to warm comfortable water. That was the sign he was fully healed.

Calith sat, once again looking around, expecting his saviour to be back. Yet he was still alone. Calith re-dressed, placed back his water-heart-scale back in his bag, protected by his moonstone. He was ready to leave when his saviour came back.

Seeing Calith up and dressed, the woman threw at him a well-closed bag full of fruits. Calith swiftly grabbed it. "I see you made use of my hint, instead of ignoring my words. What are you planning to do now?"

Calith inspected the fruits, they were beautiful. He didn't like the implication that that stranger knew about his scales. "I want to reach the Twilight Temple as soon as I can," Calith replied.

"You can either eat and stay here until morning or you can eat and risk your life again." The woman spoke not entering the cave as Calith expected her to.

"I'd rather risk my life again, I probably slept for a whole day." Calith retorted, taking the fruit and biting it.

"Three days actually."

"What?!" Calith choked on his bite. "I slept for three days?!"

"Water-dragon poison is very strong, even for a half-elf like you. Though I must say you are actually better than an elf on recovering. I had guests that took longer than you did." The other replied.

That had made Calith straighten his back in pride. "I thank your hospitality, your care for saving me. Now more than ever I wish to reach the temple as soon as I can."

"As you wish." the other said, turning around right after to watch the sunset. 

Calith took the opportunity to get closer. He looked the other from head to toe and all he could see was a black cloth. There was not one bit of skin being shown. It was so very strange. He had never seen anyone as eccentric, and he had seen several _well-heeled_ mages when he lived in Sledald.

"If I slept for three days, why am I not famished? It's the water-dragon scale effect?" Calith asked.

"Precisely. If you think you are strong enough we can leave now." the other replied.

"We? I know I almost died, but I believe I can reach the temple by myself, now that I know any little river here has water-dragons." Calith shot back, quickly he tied the fruit bag on his own.

"I'll guide you down the mountain. On another note, I am a feather hunter, I know this forest better than anyone. If you want the fastest way to reach the Twilight Temple you could very well hire me." the other offered, still not looking at Calith.

"Feather hunter?" Calith sneered, well there were buyers for everything. "How much do you expect me to pay you?"

"My price is very cheap. How many fire-dragon scales do you have? I'll take as many as you can offer, even if it's only one." The feather hunter-slash-guide set her price.

That was quite an unusual offer, why would that strange woman want fire-dragon scales? Calith pondered about it, but with one glance at the forest, the request sort of made sense. If there were dragons in the rivers then the forest was no safe place for careless stroll, the fire-dragon scale was a defensive mechanism.

"Deal. I'll pay you when I get to the temple." Calith replied all readied to get going.

Without another word, the feather hunter walked away. Calith followed, swiftly jumping down, but the lack of air for being so high up the mountains tired him faster than he expected. He saw with dismay his guide getting further away. That was annoying. Calith strongly believed then that this strange feather hunter was a recluse stupid elf.

Nevertheless, the night fell and the forest was pitch black. Calith noticed then there was a very soft light coming from the edge of his guide's robe, a moment later an orb of light appeared, floating right ahead of them. That was a basic light spell that Sun Clerics learned while entering the order. Or that's what his guide claimed.

Fortunately they didn't cross paths with any dragon - though they did pass by the river Calith had fought the water-dragon and lost, recovering his lost moonstones - a few owls, but nothing really dangerous, they walked for what Calith presumed to be seven to eight hours until his guide stopped at the start of a brick path, a huge sun engraved on it.

"This is the Sun Path. It will end at the main door of the Twilight Temple." The feather hunter stated, reaching out a hand still covered on her black mantle-slash-cloak. It seemed like Calith was talking with an animated shadow.

At least the night was clear enough for Calith not to need the orb of light. As they had agreed, Calith fished from his bag a small box made of moonstone and marble, from it he picked five fire-dragon scales.

"May the Sun always guide your path." the hunter said when she pocketed the scales. Calith thought it was very strange how they glowed ever so lightly as if there was a dragon nearby.

"May the Moon always bless your seasons," Calith replied. With that, they parted ways. 

Calith walked ahead on the path, but his gut feeling was telling him to turn around. When he did so the orb of light was gone, he could barely see the shapes of the trees, but there was a soft luminescence moving. Calith walked back, using his moonstones, he created steps on the trees and stalked his guide, curious as to why the regular-fire scales reacted like that, but not his fire-heart-scale. Not to mention the only thing those scales ever react to are other dragons. 

To his surprise, the woman had pulled off the hood of her mantle. She was, in fact, a young female, with a really pretty face, but what was most exquisite about her was her hair, it was blond and luminous, it actually emitted light. If not for her strange hair, Calith would certainly think of that woman as a human, but she was agile and precise as an elf. Who was that strange someone? Only then, Calith noticed he didn't get his guide's name.

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Hidden on the trees and using his moonstones to remain unnoticed, Calith followed the feather hunter. It was a bit strange, she kept walking straight in the direction of the Brarehem Crown whistling. If Calith closed his eyes he could swear it was a bird chirping.

At one point a bird did descent. The feather hunter reached out a bare hand. The new trace of skin left Calith stunned because there was something luminous on the back of her hand. The bird chirped and for a moment it seemed the two were conversing. 

Suddenly, there was a soft light coming from the feather hunter, her whole being lit up in soft light. The bird stopped moving. The woman started to take the feathers off of it, from the wings, from the tail. It was a painful thing to watch. Calith, as a half-elf, felt repulsed to see such a harmless creature being assaulted and robbed of what it had of most precious. 

When the pile of feathers was to the hunter's satisfaction, she picked something from the insides of her mantle. Then there was the light again, but stronger. When it was over, Calith heard chirping, a lively sound. To his next surprise, the bird opened its wings and flew around the woman. But the bird was different, its feathers had a golden glow that very slowly faded away.

What had just happened?

Calith got no answer, instead, the feather hunter continued to walk straight to the rocky wall, hiding with her mantle. Calith followed having a harder time to hide without making noises because the trees were getting farther away, he had less cover.

What happened when they actually reached the mountain was suspicious. There was an altar carved on the mountain, along with a huge sun. On the altar was a small chest, sitting in front of them was another hooded person.

"You are quite early this time." The feather hunter called. 

The one sitting looked up. “Glawardis! It’s been a while!” Calith heard a lively and young male voice replied, so he moved to find a better view. Perched on another tree, he saw a human boy, dressed in what could only seem to be a fishy fashion, the long tattered mantle hiding him was totally screaming ‘thief’ to Calith. Moments later, he saw 'Glawardis' easily jumping to higher ground on the mountain.

“I am so glad to see you, Henry. How many did you get for me this time?” The feather hunter replied with what seemed to be a relieved tone, there was something forced about it though, as if Glawardis was happy for whatever the other brought her, but not for the one bringing them. Calith strained his hearing to fully overhear their conversation. His half-elf abilities were coming in handy for him.

The human raised a hand wide open, on his face a wide grin, with the other he opened the chest and showed off its contents. “Fifty pretty fire-scales for you. For my usual of course.” He replied and right after the hand was dropped, the fingers moving in a calling gesture for the exchange goods. Calith frowned. Removing scales of a dead dragon is not an easy task. Usually, after a kill, the warriors would take two or three scales from rare dragons, from a fire-dragon up to six at most. Someone offering fifty scales was abnormal in many ways.

“Your usual.” Calith heard Glawardis reply with some sort of angry but resigned tone. From her mantle she pulled out a small bag, throwing it down to the human.

The catch was perfect. Henry wasted no time in checking the content, taking from the bag a golden stone that shone like the sun.

“So pretty, so sparkly, so mine!” Henry retorted as he raised the stone to look at it against the moon, it shone even more. How come a feather hunter had _sunstones_? Calith had never seen one in his life before, but he knew the only place on the planet that had those kinds of stones was the Amaranth Island, once upon a time the home of the mighty sun-dragons, now known as Amaranth Grave. Sunstones formed there from the regular scales of the dead sun-dragons. That Island is forbidden, only the White Order of Justice can set foot there.

Henry quickly put the sunstone bag inside his cloak, then he reached out a wooden box to Glawardis. “Red in exchange for gold. When I get more of your precious I will come back. Always a pleasure, Glawardis. May the Sun always guide your path.” Henry added before he saluted a mocking goodbye and went away. 

It took a long while for Glawardis to jump down the rock formation. When she did, the fire-dragon scales started to react. With fifty scales together it was impossible to deny that shine. When the feather hunter removed the hood, the shine of the scales increased. The red shine of many fire-dragon scales reacting to Glawardis’s presence could only mean one thing: Glawardis is a dragon.

But his fire-heart-scale was not reacting… maybe because it's a dragon in human form? Why did Glawardis need so many of those scales? Why pay with sunstones for scales that could be bought with just a handful of copper coins? It was too much desperation for something that seemed so trivial. Why would a dragon even need fire-dragon scales?

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	3. The last scale will be conquered

The knowledge that dragons can somehow assume a human form alarmed the half-elf to a point he completely ditched his wish for the Sun Blade until he figured out this mystery. Calith thought back to the way his heart-scale together with the regular scales had reacted in merkadia. If dragons could now shape-shift that explained why he felt them but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Instead of going to the Twilight Temple, he followed Glawardis all the way back to her cave high up the mountains. 

In truth, Calith felt partly scared, partly excited with his finding. 

Of course, Calith arrived back at the cave's mouth much later than Glawardis did. When he sneaked a peek inside, Glawardis had taken off the mantle completely, the only thing she was still wearing were black pants.

The dragon's back was something stunning. She had markings on the skin, as if a tribal tattoo, that resembled wings. The lines covered her back, went up to her shoulder, then down the back of her forearm, made a circle on her elbow, descended further until it reached her hand, ending as the marks Calith had seen earlier. Those markings were not any kind of ink though, they seemed to be made of a different type of skin, one that was luminous just like Glawardis's hair. Right at the base of her nape was the heart-scale in the shape of a triangle with rounded edges, not bigger than his thumb. It was different than all the scales Calith had. It was bright, shining like a little sun. Glawardis is not just a dragon. She is a _sun-dragon_.

Despite the beauty of that strange composition, there was also a wound. Claw marks close to her shoulder. They were red and still seemed very painful and recent. At the edge of one of the wounds, the skin was clearly swelling. Calith reached his mind to his moonstones, moulding them into two slender daggers. He took a step in the direction of his wounded unsuspecting precious prey. Why go for a Sun Blade that was actually a useless weapon to Calith when he could grab his very own sun-heart-scale?

Glawardis took off her pants and kneeled into the pool. The water chirped. Calith stopped. 

Glawardis is not just a sun-dragon. She is a sun-dragon that has saved his life, cared for his wounds, guided him to where he wanted to go. Calith _was in debt with a dragon_.

The daggers turned back into vambraces. Calith opened his bag, from it came flying his water-heart-scale. Calith made it float all the way to Glawardis, who was carefully throwing water over her shoulder.

"Would this be more effective?" Calith asked while the water-heart-scale stopped, floating right in front of Glawardis.

The reply he got was a blinding light. He dropped the scale while he tried to protect his eyes from the sudden beam. Since he couldn't see a thing, his self-preservation instinct kicked in, his vambrace changed again, dividing itself in multiple little balls they started to fly around Calith as a moving shield.

"You were raised in Myr, right? From a family of elves. Elves do not betray those they had received help from." Glawardis said, Calith could tell the dragon was actually surprised and scared.

Calith frowned. Glawardis surely knew much about elves' customs. 

"Don't overlook the fact that I am also human. Humans are not that noble. And I do consider myself more of a human than an elf," Calith countered. "I was trying to help you, not kill you. Now you blinded me."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm... sorry... " Glawardis replied, she did sound contrite. "I didn't realise you were still following me… you scared me."

"You are too much of a scared kitty to be a dragon." Calith deadpanned. His words though met silence once again.

"How long... you've been following me?" Glawardis finally spoke again, but her voice sounded much closer.

"We sort of never really parted ways..." Calith confessed. He kept blinking but his blindness wouldn't go away. Again, there was a long silence after his words.

"Can you drop the shield?" Glawardis asked and Calith could tell she was right in front of him. He felt scared because he had not felt her approach, but the moonstones stopped moving, he was willing to give the dragon a chance, for he was grateful for his life.

Not long after, he felt Glawardis hold his hands. "Come in… if you clean your eyes with the water it will heal."

"The same water pool you were in a few minutes ago? I don't think so." Calith made a disgusted face. But most of his thoughts were revolving on how the dragon's hands were silky and warm, they felt kind and filled Calith with a sense of safety.

"It's the same water you were in for three days. The water-scales are always purifying it." Glawardis assured as she guided Calith to the pool.

After cleaning up his eyes, Calith recovered his eyesight. He looked aside and saw Glawardis kneeling beside him. The dragon seemed to be enveloped by a pure aura, her human form was pretty, almost hypnotising. From that close Calith could see her hair was really luminous, it had a light of its own.

"Beautiful..." Glawardis mumbled.

"What?" Calith asked, he was thinking the very same thing of Glawardis, that had startled him. He had not been hypnotised, but he had been dazed by the dragon.

"Your hair reflecting my light is really beautiful," Glawardis added, a small smile on her lips that soon turned into a grimace. "I'm sorry."

It was Calith's turn to remain silent. Even though he was seeing it, he still couldn't believe it. _How can this be?_

"I didn't know dragons had a human-like form. I never heard anything about it," The half-elf finally spoke, tentatively reaching out and touching Glawardis's silky luminous hair. It was definitely not a dream. "I always believed dragons are mindless beasts."

"Dragons _are_ mindless, you could say primitive, beasts by nature. Only very few dragons had this gift. It's not an easy feat to acquire it." Glawardis mumbled, looking away. She seemed really cute, being all shy like that. It was quite strange considering she was quite tough when she was hidden under the mantle.

"Oh, it is?" Calith smirked, inching closer. Glawardis inched away. "How did you change from a mindless beast to this scared kitty?" Calith joked.

"By becoming the last sun-dragon alive." the dragon replied, her whole expression turning sour, those words were clearly painful.

For a moment Calith was quiet, unable to reply to those words. After all, mere minutes ago he’d been intent on killing the last sun-dragon himself. Now there he was, having a casual conversation with her as if his main goal in life hadn’t been killing so many of her kind. He shook his head to clear it of the confusion.

“You’re saying you only gained this much control after all the others died?”

She shook her head. "It's much more than that," she went back to the pool to clean her wound, but she continued talking. "Most dragons live by the instinct of killing or being killed, the primal instinct to survive and reproduce. Only our own lives were supposed to be important. Sun-dragons were more than that, we were a community, we took care of each other, in a way we had something beyond animal but not yet to the same intricate level of the other races with hierarchies, leaders and armies. We all cared for each other and we could share our minds and feelings." 

"Like telepathy or something?" Calith interrupted, not sure how to feel about that knowledge. 

Glawardis nodded. "Something like that… but deeper… it was like our minds were one and the same… one of us dying was the same as part of ourselves dying… when my home was invaded, my parents sacrificed themselves so I could escape, then I was betrayed by the other dragon races, even they started to hunt me, I was told that killing me is every dragon's hope for glory. When I arrived on this island I wanted to die too. I didn't cherish my life anymore, but a sun-adept found me, he took care of me, protected me. Because of that human I learned how to cherish the life of others. When I protected him from other dragons, I gained this form."

Calith was listening, but his eyes were drawn to the wound on her back. The more he kept looking, the more he could see that there was something in the swollen part of the wound - as if a piece of glass was under her skin hindering the healing progress. 

“There’s something in there,” he told her, nodding to her back with his head to show her what he’s talking about. “It might help for you to get it out so you can heal better?”

His own words made him frown the minute he realised what he was saying, and he instantly turned both gaze and head away from her. There was something wrong with this entire picture and for a moment it had him wondering if maybe she was influencing him somehow. But such a thing did not exist. Right?

Glawardis looked back at him, surprised with the fact that it seemed he didn't listen to a word she said, but she acknowledged him. "I know… But I can't reach it… it is my fault it is there, because of it I learned to only claw myself around the waist… It's been like this for a very long time." And after saying that she went back to gently let the water fall over her wound.

Calith watched her actions from the corner of his eye, only turning his face back to her as she allowed more water to flow over the wound. It looked painful for sure and having something lodged in your back for a long time didn’t sound like it would be a nice thing to experience.

“So, what happened to the human?” He decided instead to ask, by doing so also showing that he had actually been paying attention to her, asking about him seemed to be less painful a topic than delving into the collective mind concept. He could never begin to imagine what it would be like to feel the death of all those he loved. “The one you protected.”

She smiled at the memories, not looking back at her guest. "Like every human, one day he died. We both watched over each other until his hair turned grey, his skin wrinkled and his last breath happened during his sleep… he became an Arch-cleric and it was because of him that now the Sun Order protects me. After his death I followed in his steps, guiding the lost towards the temple, taking care of the wounded… waiting for the day I will be killed." 

Calith continued to look at her throughout her explanation, eyes wandering over her features, taking in the lines of her face. Deciding whether or not he would help her. But in the end, he didn’t feel like he had much of a choice, considering she saved his life.

“If you want, I can try and get it out…” The offer was made, despite the reluctance, he still moved closer towards her. Somehow the glow on her skin felt like something he shouldn’t touch, shouldn’t… get dirty? His thoughts were making no sense whatsoever, but it wasn’t like he could take back the words he’d already said. And so he lifted his gaze up to her face, waiting for her reply.

She looked at him then, eyes scared. "Would you really?" When she saw that he was a Moon Templar the wild thought of asking his help had crossed her mind. But then she remembered how her kind had been eradicated, it was those Templars who provided blades made of moonstone to the White Paladins, only moonstones could perforate her scales and skins. She had always been scared of moonstones, even more of their wielders. "If you do so, you will be awarded… you can have it," she added looking down, resentful for the thoughts of why she had that wound.

“Have what?” He instantly questioned, frowning at the words she’d spoken. It seemed like nothing more than a shard of glass, after all. But then he probably was mistaken, considering a shard of glass could never have penetrated her skin. So he cleared his throat, recomposing himself.

“I will take it out. You saved my life, it is the least I can do in return.” He wondered, though, about why she saved his life. Was it merely because of that other guy? Or did she have an ulterior motive somehow? It was still hard to imagine a dragon having more intelligence than a wild beast. “I might hurt you more in the process of getting it out, but it will be the only way for you to properly heal.”

She nodded, "You will see." Right after, she stood up and walked further into the cave, her whole body started to light up. "Close your eyes or you might get blinded again," she warned.

He did as told, after another moment at least. Wondering if he was being entirely stupid by closing his eyes again. But then she’d blinded him before and had let him live. She’d saved his life, to begin with. And she had warned him for the blinding light. So he decided once more to trust her, for she had not broken his trust so far.

Slowly the light indeed became blinding, and minutes later there was no longer a young woman with luminous hair in front of Calith, but a shiny Sun-dragon. It was much different than any of the other dragons he had slain, the scales seemed to be some sort of glass with liquid luminous patterns, the membrane of her wings were also luminous as if sunlight was hitting a panel of rice-paper. Shifting slightly, Glawardis lifted a wing while she laid on the cave ground, the wound seemed much worse in her dragon form, her regular scales had been ripped by a claw, her flesh was exposed and a little blood started to pool there. Looking at the swollen part of the wound Calith finally understood what it was, there was a scale under a thin layer of translucent skin, it had only been half ripped from its original position. While trying to heal, the skin grew over it. Every time she moved, the scale would injure her internally. Since the scale can't break the hardened skin, that wound would never heal.

He frowned lightly, then focused his attention on the vambrace moonstone. Just like before, they easily slid off, floating up in the air between them for a moment before moving closer to her. He walked closer as well, slowly closing the distance between them so that he would have a better view of the wound and the scale lodged there.

It took a moment of consideration, planning the movement and the best way to go about it, but then his moonstones easily shifted again to create a sharp edge. He considered warning her but decided against it. He figured she’d be more than aware of his actions. And so he cut through the newly grown layer of skin, as quick and precise as he could muster.

With a mere thought, the moonstones changed shape again, creating a set of pincers that took hold of the lodged scale and tugged it out in a fluid motion. He gently put the scale down on the floor of the cave before giving the wound another good look. It didn’t look like anything else had to be removed, but he glanced over at the dragon’s head regardless.

“Is anything else lodged in there?”

Glawardis looked at him with tear-filled eyes, throughout the process she had done her very best not to emit a sound, but then she grunted. "No..." her voice echoed in Calith's mind, weakly. There was the telepathy, alright. "Close your eyes," she warned again before starting to shift back to her human form. Back on her human feet, she walked to the pool, "If you hide the scale from the sun, it will turn into sunstone, that is your reward for helping me."

Calith huffed out a bitter smile. “But I will still owe you an entire life debt, will I not?” He inquired, but at the same time already reached for the sun scale. It was too valuable a thing to have. With it he could deliver a huge slap in the face of the elves, proving that he was the best of his kind, having a scale from every type of dragon in existence. The life debt was one he’d seal by not trying to kill her today. Which was as much as he told her.

“I guess letting you live today will cure me of any debt I owe you. Then we can part ways in freedom.” He tilted his head slightly to the side, raising an eyebrow at her in question to see if she agreed or not.

"You owe me nothing. I had been given kindness, I am only giving it back. As I said, I help whoever enters this forest. Now that the sun is rising you won't need my guidance to reach the temple once again. May the Sun always guide your path," She told him with a grateful smile. "If you kill another fire-dragon, feel free to come and exchange the fire-scales with more sunstones," she added, still smiling, but there was something forced about it.

Calith nodded, gathering his belongings and adding the sun-scale to the other things in his pack. “May the Moon always bless your seasons,” he returned the greeting, then left the cave behind. No need to further press his luck, after all.

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Once outside, he looked out over the land. For a moment longer he considered his options. He could go back home. With the sun scale in his possession, he could already show them they were wrong about him. But somehow, after having fought so long and hard to get there, not going to get his Sun-blade just felt like a waste.

And so he set off in the direction of the Temple, to get the blade he’d been working to earn ever since he became a Dragon Slayer. But the moment he exited the cave, he got the sun-scale out, noticing that it had lost its beauty, its light had almost completely faded. He stopped momentarily and let it be bathed by the dawn light. And, as he hoped, the scale slowly got back its light. For the rest of his descend, he made sure the scale was always hit by the sunlight. When he reached the forest, he worried it would once again lose its light and become a sun-stone, but the moment he entered the shadowed forest, the light increased a little bit as if trying to fight the surrounding darkness, just like a little sun. Calith smiled then, maybe the scale wouldn't turn into sun-stone anymore. Covering the scale with a thin layer of moonstone he noticed something else, it became just like a sun-heart-scale but of a different shape. Hours latter he finally made it to his destination.

Opening the Temple's door, he was met with the exact opposite of what he had always believed he would find there, because it was very much the opposite of the dawn temple. Instead of walls made of gold and decorated with sun-scales, he found a dull wood structure without any glamour, the long corridor in front of him was dark, the only light coming from up ahead, where he could see an altar bathed in light. Walking there he noticed that the other three corridors were forming a cross, the altar in the middle only had the statue of the Sun God holding a rapier, but that was clearly not a Sun-blade.

"Welcome, youngster," An old tired voice greeted him from the left. There, in the middle of a corridor, stood a Sun Cleric, an Arch-cleric to be precise, dressed in a white robe with a golden sun embroidered over his chest and a fancy turban hiding his hair. "Why are you reaching out to the Twilight?"

“I’m here to get a Sun-blade,” Calith said in a quieter tone of voice. His eyes took in the man, feeling suddenly a little ill at ease in the other male’s presence. As if the eyes could see straight into his pack and figure out what he kept there.

"Then show me the proof of your worth to receive it." The man requested, his tone turned quite prideful, as if he was doubting Calith's ability.

Trying his best to suppress an eye roll, Calith reached out to his moonstones, noticing that one water scale was missing, but nevertheless, one by one, he took out all eleven heart-scales, originally he had two sets of every type of dragon. Displaying all six for the Cleric to see, he straightened up once all of them were out, floating midair between them. “Here is your proof. I had two sets, but lost one water-heart-scale on my way here.”

The cleric was clearly displeased by the fact that a Templar was in front of him, "Templars are not welcome in a Sun Temple. Leave. We will never give a sun-blade to betrayers like your kind!" He thundered, his voice reverberated through the temple as if a monster had spoken.

Anger bubbled up inside of Calith at the accusation made on his account. The moonstones around his wrist instantly twisted and shifted, shaping themselves into swords he held threateningly in both hands.

“Take back those words,” he hissed at the Arch-cleric, eyes narrowed to slits in his anger. “I will never be the same as those… Those…” There simply wasn’t even a word in his vocabulary that was enough to describe the disgust and hatred inside of him. “Don’t judge me so easily as being one of them, it is the last I ever want to be.”

The cleric was clearly confused, but he still couldn't fully believe in someone who could work with moonstones like that. "How can someone with such skill not be a Templar? Elves would never discard such power..." Only then the Arch-cleric noticed, he had first thought the young man was a human using a silver wig, then because of the moonstones he assumed the other was an elf, but the truth is he was a half-breed. "Yes, they would… Arrogant and so self-centred as they are they would never acknowledge something in between… Am I right?"

Calith didn’t reply, merely gave a grim nod. “And now I am here to get a Sun-blade.”

"To humiliate them?" The Arch-cleric asked with a small smile. He would never dream of such a thing happening in front of him, for a moonstone wielder of such skill to set foot in a Sun Temple, that was probably an act of redemption from the Moon Goddess.

“Until the point where they hardly dare step out of their front door again,” he agreed with a smile of grim satisfaction at the mere thought. “Until they realise they should change their ways.”

"I will accept your worth, but you still have a final trial to win before you get the Sun-blade. The weapon can only be wielded by a member of the sun order. Would you pledge loyalty to the Sun god?" The Arch-cleric smiled, that was a blessing he would not let pass.

“Before I was born, the Moon Goddess appeared to my mother to bless me with enormous power for the day the moon will embrace the sun. I do think we may understand from this that I am already one of those fated to protect the Sun god.” Calith replied, trying to keep his expression pleasant even though he was starting to feel uncomfortable.

The Arch-cleric frowned, there was something in what Calith said that the old man had seemed to recognise. "Should I take it that today you are a moon embracing the sun?" the Arch-cleric asked, looking shortly past Calith, there was a surprise in his expression but then he cleared his throat. "I will accept that as your initial vow… Come with me."

The Cleric beckoned him into the corridor, guiding him all the way into the darkness until they reached a set of black doors, why was everything so dark inside a Sun Temple? When the door opened though, Calith was thrown off guard, the room they entered was brightly lit, the walls were covered in gold, in the middle of the room was a statue of a Sun-dragon, covered on what seemed true sun-scales, it seemed like it was a little smaller version of Glawardis' true form, it was sitting, looking seriously ahead, as if staring right inside Calith, the tail was lightly wrapped around a beautifully designed rapier _made of moonstone_ , with a sun-heart-scale attached to the guard.

"This is the true Sun-Blade," The cleric announced. "This blade killed countless sun-dragons, it was given to us as a mockery by the elves. We always considered the sun-dragons as holy creatures, their extinction was a huge affront to the Sun Order. The white paladins also came to mock us, by offering their lesser weapons used in the fight, and bringing countless scales."

The door was shut behind Calith, imprisoning him. In front of the door stood a young woman and two young men, all dressed in the same white Arch Cleric-esch robes with golden suns on their chest, but they were not wearing the turbans, so their hair instantly caught Calith's attention, theirs were mostly light brown, but had luminous strands just like Glawardis’ luminous hair. Calith no longer had his regular fire-dragon scales, but he knew that they would have reacted even if his fire-heart scale did not. He was sure those three were dragons in human form. He remembered it from when he arrived at Merkadia, the Arch-clerics that had crossed paths with him were in fact dragons in human form.

"Do you know why the moonstones were made into weapons and used against the Sun-dragons?" The Arch-cleric asked from Calith's side.

“No, I don’t,” Calith replied truthfully, his expression turning interested as his gaze returned to the man, at his side, the only human in the room. He still remained highly aware of the other three dragons in the chamber, however, not wanting to be ambushed from behind.

"The Sun-dragons had the hardest scales, even the other dragons would have a hard time to claw them out, the only thing known, that could severely hurt a sun-dragon, was its own claws, but a Templar unintentionally found out moonstones had the same effect." The Arc-cleric started to explain. "Can you guess why?" he challenged.

Calith frowned lightly but spoke soon after. “Logic dictates that only something as strong as a sun-dragon’s claw would be able to pierce their skin, which would mean that moonstones were ones something along with the likes of it. Did they come from dragons as well?” the question was a trick, Calith knew from where the moonstones came from, the secret of how they come to be was something passed down only to High Templars. That was the last lesson from his father.

The Arch-cleric nodded but the reply didn't seem sufficient. "Some claim Moon-dragons existed, and that moonstones came from them as sun-stones appeared when the sun-dragons died, but not even the dragon's know if that is true. Maybe the high templars know. The reason is something different. Moonstones perfectly reflect the sun's light, that's why they are so efficient if harming any dragon, no wonder you were the first to bring here eleven heart-scales, all others had brought over only the required six."

The old man beckoned Calith closer to the Sun-Blade. "Pledge loyalty to the Sun. Become a Sun Paladin and you can have the sword. Betraying the Sun will be your death."

Calith considered for a moment, taking in the three dragons at the door again before letting his gaze go back to the blade. He could pledge loyalty and walk out there a free man with the Sun-blade in hand, or he could refuse and… Probably die.

So he considered the option of pledging his loyalty. The man wanted him to pledge loyalty to the sun. He’d left a sun-dragon not long ago, still indebted to her for his life. No matter what he’d told her or she’d told him, he still held that debt inside of him and he was still supposed to pay it off. All he had to do was pledge loyalty to her, pretending to be pledging to the Sun god.

After that, he could go home as a Sun Paladin, wipe that new fact into the elves’ faces.

Everyone would be happy and he’d stay alive.

So he nodded his head, a quick gesture, his eyes going back to the Cleric. “I’ll do it then. I pledge loyalty to the sun.” Until his debt was paid.

The moment he said that the statue shone lightly as if resonating with his words. Then he started to shine. He closed his eyes and saw the figure that had been standing at the altar. The Sun god appeared to him in a vision. "You finally arrived to fulfil her promise to me. Do not disappoint us, you, who have received the Moon's blessing even before your birth, and now receive my blessing to avoid death."

"You have only one mission as a Sun Paladin," the Arch-cleric spoke next, pointing at the three who were still blocking the door. "The sun-dragons are yet to be extinct, these three are half-breed between earth-dragons and sun-dragons. Hidden in the mountains there is still a sun-dragon alive, you must ensure it stays that way. Your new home is Merkadia, you cannot leave this island until you fulfil your mission."

Calith frowned, looking over at the dragon hybrids for a while before turning back to the Cleric. “I need to go back home, though,” he spoke in a calm tone of voice, trying to make sense of what the vision had been and whether any of them had even noticed it. “How else will they know what I did?” not to mention he wanted to take his mother away from that damned place.

"You cannot leave at this point, maybe in the future… The White Order of Justice, they are moving, their plan has failed, the dragons are restless but they are no longer fighting amongst themselves to decide who will rule the species." The cleric said, shaking his head.

"We know our kind is feared by the other races, removing the top of our chain would have diminished our numbers enough for the White Paladins to be able to easily eradicate us, but as long as there is one pure sun-dragon alive, or even us hybrids, the chain remains, they had been searching for us, and they are closing in. They had already raided the Dawn Temple, it is a matter of time before they reach Twilight." the only female dragon spoke. Hope was clearly attached to her voice.

"We will protect our sister with our lives, but your arrival definitely brings us hope, for you can rid them of their weapons and turn them in our favour." One of the males spoke.

"If a war breaks in Merkadia, the whole world will know your name." the Arch-cleric said last.

His eyes went over the people in the room once more, taking them all in so he could commit their faces to memory, before nodding his head once. “Alright. So be it then.” Turning his gaze back to the Sun-blade, he straightened his back and righted his shoulders. “I’ll have my blade and then I’ll be on my way.”

The Arch-cleric smiled relieved. "We need you to take the last sun-dragon further into the island, no one has ever crossed the crown, but you will have to. Lasseth will guide you through the market so you can buy food for the trip. Then you come back in case they really come here."

At hearing her name the female dragon stepped forth, the other two opened the door.

Calith nodded at the Arch-cleric, then stepped forward to take the Sun-blade out of its hold. Holding the solid weight in his hand, he looked at it for a good minute. All he had dreamed of gaining, right there in his hand. The proof with which he could show the elves he was worth so much more than they gave him credit for. To show them how wrong they had been for treating him and his family like they had.

Yet somehow he didn’t feel the way he’d thought he’d feel. Like dreams came true. Or like he’d reached his goal in life. Somehow it all seemed a little silly in that very moment as he was standing there, looking at the blade in his hand.

And then he turned around, the moonstone of the blade shifting and flowing until it became a beautiful belt around his middle. The sun-heart-scale sitting in the middle of it like any ordinary accessory. Now he had all seven heart-scales. Now that somehow he belonged to the Sun Order, that heart-scale didn't fill him with pride. The Sun-dragon that heart-scale belonged to, Glawardis had felt its death. That sentiment clouded his heart, but not his path.

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“Better get going then. Lasseth, was it?” His eyes fell upon the female dragon, and he found himself wondering how all three of them had managed to become dragons with a conscious mind. Things he’d find out soon enough, he figured.

Lasseth nodded, "Let us go." and saying that she took a turban from her back, with which she hid her hair. She really looked like nothing but a normal human girl. A powerful Arch-cleric human girl.

They exited the room and moved on to the main hall, one of the male dragons, the one that had kept silent in the room, reached out a golden pendant shaped like a sun, "My name is Tordor, the other hybrid dragon is Caedor. Here, this is proof you are now part of the Order, you can get anything for free in the market and access to every room in the Temple. May the Sun always guide your path."

“May the Moon always bless your seasons,” Calith replied, accepting the golden sun pendant and tucking it away in his pocket. He let his eyes go over the temple walls once more before walking outside.

Back in Merkadia, Calith's first deed was to make fun of the guard by the Desolation Bridge. _See? I told you they would make me a Sun Paladin_. He showed off, but then he composed himself, knowing his future tasks at hand wouldn't be a walk in the plains. Lasseth pointed to him where were the shops favoured by the Temple both for their products and their loyalty. First, they got two large backpacks, Calith didn't think much about it since he was going to travel with Glawardis, but when Lasseth folded one of the packs, then started to put _everything_ they were picking up in the other, he started to wonder.

At one point they stopped at an armoury shop with a big Sun-dragon drawn in its sign. "If you want, you can ask him to get you armour for your Paladin status." Lasseth pointed out, but before he could reply a commotion at the central square interrupted their talk. It was Lasseth who moved first, kind of forcing Calith to go after her.

While they were approaching, they could already hear someone talking loudly, shouting that they would provide weapons and armour to whoever dared to enter Brarehem Crown to hunt Sun-dragons. When they got close enough, they saw two White Paladins instigating the traveling warriors. The Brarehem Island is a Sun Sanctuary, after what the White Paladins did to the Dawn Temple - raided it in search of sun-dragons, killing the Sun Clerics - the High and Arch Clerics of the Twilight Temple raised a barrier and forbade the White Paladins entrance. Since the clerics couldn't block everyone from going to the temple those bastards were trying to convince warriors without chains to the god of Justice to go hunt the last sun-dragons. They were so desperate to eradicate all dragons it was sort of sickening.

Frowning at the scene, Calith took in the people who seemed willing enough to listen to them. Not all too many, but definitely a few. Taking hold of Lasseth’s elbow, he tugged it gently. “Come on, we’ve got to hurry,” he told her in a hushed voice. “Making a scene here is not going to help us at all.”

Lasseth smiled. "They can bark all they want," she replied as softly and not long after her words a tomato hit one of the White Paladins. 

"You already killed the sun-dragons! Go tell lies somewhere else!" someone shouted and other voices raised in protest as well, surprising those that had seemed willing to accept the hunt. Lasseth smiled even more and she turned around.

Glad to find the dragon was at least not going to make a scene, Calith slid back into the crowd along with her. He went back to the armoury shop they’d been at before, meanwhile asking her: “Do you think I should get armour like that?”

"Not particularly," She replied with a small smile. "You seemed to want to show off your status so I just pointed a way, I do think an armour of Moonstone would cause more impact," she added looking over and seeing Caedor walking in their direction, the other hybrid dragon must have seen the commotion from the temple.

"They arrived faster than we expected," He commented with an angry face. "I will go deal with them, are all preparations ready?"

Calith looked at the backpack they had filled up quite nicely, then back at Lasseth to see how she felt about their preparations.

"Are you getting the armour or not?" She asked Calith, "If you don't think it's necessary, you should get going. Taking my sister out of her cave won't be easy."

“It might be better not to catch too much attention,” he replied easily, shrugging his shoulders lightly. “I’ll be off then.” Throwing the backpack over his shoulder, he gave a nod at the two dragons, then set for the bridge again. 

When he was a few steps away, Lasseth noticed she was still holding the second pack, so she called him and threw him the item once he turned around. "You will need this, otherwise she will not budge. Trust me."

“What, you want me to stick her in here?” He countered, an amused smile playing around his lips. “Carry her out?”

"Will most probably be the other way around. You will understand when you get there," Caedor told him with a small sentimental smile. "She is the only one that can tell you. Go now. Quickly. We will stall whoever takes the White Paladin's favour."

Calith gave a nod of his head, tightening his grip on both backpacks and then hurrying off at a quick walk. He didn’t want to pull too much attention to himself, after all, despite having to hurry.

Once again he passed by the guard at the bridge, giving the male a nod with a grin on his face before using the same method as before to cross the questionable bridge. Once his feet were back on solid ground, he hurried further into the wilderness, trying his best to remember the way back to Glawardis’ cave.

He ended up meeting her right at the base of the mountain, it seemed she was about to go off hunting feathers again. Seeing him she halted. "Did you come back for your water-heart-scale?" she asked softly.

“That too. But I actually came back for you,” Allowing the moonstone of his belt to shape back into the Sun-blade, he held it up slightly with his previously free hand. “Apparently receiving this means swearing loyalty to the Sun,” A light smile momentarily sparked in his expression, before he buried it again. “The White Paladins are gathering people in Merkadia to hunt for you. The hybrid dragons are slowing them down but I don’t think we’ll have very long.”

The mention of the White Paladins made Glawardis shiver, but the fear was not for herself. "They are what?!" she said pulling off the hood and revealing her luminous hair. "I need to go help them!" 

She had taken a step ahead, but then halted and looked up at the mountain. There was conflict all over her face. "The clerics told me one day I would have to cross the mountains... Is it really necessary?" 

“I presume so,” Calith hummed. “To be quite honest I’m entirely new to this as well so asking me questions might not be the best idea,” This time an actual grin bloomed on his face. “But I was told to bring a second backpack.” Lifting the backpack a little higher again, he allowed the Sun-blade to settle into a belt around his middle again.

“I suggest we get going. The hybrids are not fighting the Paladins, only the people they might send into the forest.”

Glawardis clearly got emotional when she saw the second backpack, she walked closer and held it against her chest. "It's been two centuries since I last flew, I don't think I can do it."

She looked past him, it was clear she didn't want to go, but she looked back at him. "I need your help. Since you pledged loyalty I can fully trust you. Would you please give me some of your moonstones?"

Calith glanced down at the vambrace around his arms, then sighed lightly. “How many? What for?”

"Come with me." and saying that she turned around and started to climb up the mountain again.

After entering the cave, she passed by the pool and stopped to collect the water-scales. With all of them in hand, she walked further into the cave. They went in so deep that at one point Calith could only see himself because of the luminosity of her hair and tattoos. The cave that had been quite large, slowly narrowed to the point they had to walk by bending forward as to not hit their head. Then Calith saw in the way ahead a red and golden luminosity that was increasing as they got closer. There were a bunch of fire-scales gathered in a dent on the cave floor, and nestled in between them was a golden luminous egg that resembled Glawardis sun-scales.

"This is the last sun-egg, the last hope of rebuilding my race. But even after 200 years, I can't make it hatch, I don't have the exact warmth it needs because I have never laid eggs." Glawardis said softly. "If I am to escape, I need your help to take it with me."

Calith couldn’t take his eyes off of the egg for the first few moments, taking in its almost ethereal glow and letting his eyes go over the shape of it. A real dragon egg. A sun-dragon egg on top of that. He could only imagine the types of things people would do to get to it. Things he was now sworn to prevent them from doing. His eyes closed almost automatically as he sighed, then nodded his head.

“Alright. Tell me what I have to do.”

This was going to be a long journey.

Glawardis picked the second backpack and opened it, "could you make a thin layer of moonstone to hold the fire-scales so I can put the egg inside? It needs to stay warm or it will die." 

Calith did as Glawardis instructed, finally understanding why the empty backpack was so necessary and why Glawardis was so desperate to get fire-dragon scales. The last Sun-egg sure was something of great importance, another addition to the list of things he needed to protect.

After the task was done, Glawardis took a firm hold on the backpack, holding it tightly against her chest. "We need to go this way," she whispered before taking quiet steps further into the mountain. Right after the spot where she had kept the sun-egg, the cave divided itself into two paths. Glawardis took the left, and Calith noticed that the base of the walls had been marked with sun-stones, which were reacting to Glawardis soft luminescence. Further ahead there were other connections to different numbers of tunnels at times. Sometimes their path would be plain, others they would descend, but he noticed they would never climb. Calith didn't know for how long they had been walking, but if his hurting feet were any indication, he was about to plead for a little break. 

At the end of a tunnel, Calith heard the sound of water dripping, the air became much more humid. Further ahead his feet started to splash on cold water. It was a very soft descent at that point and the further they walked the larger the cave became and the water on the ground became a shallow stream. Glawardis luminescence was no longer the only light inside the cave and Calith felt grateful for the prospect of being allowed to see the sky again, but he was not ready for what was on the other side of the Brarehem Crown.

The cave's opening ended in a splendid waterfall, they were so high up that the water wouldn't even touch the trees way down. Looking up at the border of the cave, he saw that meters up started the thin cape of snow that marked the middle of the mountains. Up ahead his eyes could only see the green cape of untouched forest, which was most certainly the last untouched place in all of their humble world. The terrain was quite odd though. Calith could distinguish something different on the horizon, there was something like a topless pyramid covered in plants that seemed to mark the exact center of the island. Calith frowned. That forest should be impossible, with mountains blocking the humid winds from the ocean, the inside of the crown should be a plain desert.

"The adept that saved me told me that he had been there. It's a temple made of moonstone. He told me to hide in there because that temple doesn't belong to the Moon. It was passed down as a secret through the High Sun Cleric lineage. They said that is where the Sun god resided when the world began," Glawardis said, trying to be heard above the roar of the waterfall. "The safest way to get there is by flying, but I am not sure if I still know how to."

“Well, perhaps you can give it a go without me and the egg, to begin with, so you won’t damage anything important,” Calith retorted, the first signs of an actual grin playing around the corners of his lips. Raising his eyebrows slightly, he waited to see if she would even notice the humour in his words or let it pass by like all the times before.

Glawardis caressed the backpack with downcast eyes. "You are right..." she mumbled before reaching out the backpack to Calith, there was a lot of fear in her eyes.

“Hey,” he uttered, taking the backpack over from her. “I’m sure you’ll remember how. Just take a deep breath,” Holding the sun-egg much as she had been, Calith waited until they made eye contact again. “You should not let the weight of your task lower you, but allow it to take you high,” He smiled a bit amused after those words. “Quite literally in this case.”

Glawardis smiled at his encouragement, then took a deep breath before undressing. "Can you put my clothes in your backpack?" she asked, trying to sound confident before she looked at the clear sky. She closed her eyes and repeated his words in her head. She glowed, jumping to the other side of the waterfall to have space to change and not be a nuisance to her companion. After the transformation, Glawardis gripped the border of the cave and looked down. Again she closed her eyes and opened her wings. Three times she tried to take impulse, but her back paws kept her grip on the mountain. 

At the fourth try, she did jump, but her wings felt numb, she fell desperately trying to grab the stone again. She wailed as she clawed her way back to the cave. Giving her back to the sky, she curled in herself, crying. She didn't want to ever fly again. The last time she did, she suffered too much.

Calith watched it all with a frown, looking at how she jumped but did not actually do anything. He followed her descent, almost ready to throw every available moonstone he could muster into the task of catching an entire dragon, but then she caught herself and clawed back up the rocks until she was close to him.

“What happened?” He asked in a soft voice, somewhat hesitantly stepping closer with the backpack still solidly grasped in his arms. “Are you okay?”

She lightly shook her head, still crying. Back then she was told to fly and not look back, to take one of the eggs with her to the earth dragon nest where they had hybrids. She flew until her wings felt like they were being ripped from her body, she had landed hoping to find shelter, but then was attacked, some of the hybrid eggs were destroyed by the earth dragons themselves, she managed to save three of them, desperately flying to save their lives. Then she landed at the Brarehem Island, injured, famished, ready to die with her unborn kin. She lost all she knew the last time she flew. It felt like the story would repeat itself. Did she really need to fly to save her life while leaving the hybrids behind? Would she ever see them again? 

"I don't want to fly..." she wailed, her voice reverberating in Calith's head. "I don't want to leave them behind… I want to die with them..." she kept saying, in her head memories of her original home got mixed with memories of the temple, and all that bombarded Calith's mind. Her pain and agony of needing to fly to exhaustion to save herself first from the White Paladins, then from water-dragons every time she was too tired to fly higher over the ocean, then from the earth-dragons who betrayed her at the prospect of becoming the new royalty amongst the dragons. Her human body was a blessing, a wingless body had been her promise of never again needing to fly. But there she was at the start of a repeating circle. Flying means loss, pain, and betrayal... 

It was almost too much for Calith to take, the continuous assault on his mind of all the things she was afraid of, but eventually, he managed to find himself amidst the storm and stand straighter in it.

“Hey. HEY. Listen to me,” He spoke, trying to somehow capture her attention among the horrors of her memories. “Listen to me, Glawardis. You are _not_ alone this time. I am here and I have sworn to protect you. Even if I hadn’t, I owe you my life and I will not let anyone take yours just like that. Nor that of this unborn kin of yours,” He reached out then, trying to put a hand on her scales without startling her. 

“You’re not alone.”

Glawardis wailed again, moving her head to look at Calith. The last time she had someone say she was not alone, that she would be protected, was when the Sun-order took her and the hybrids in. They indeed had taken care of her, and even though she secluded herself inside the cave and the forest instead of living in the temple, she never felt alone. She moved her head closer to Calith, having his hand rest over her head.

Something strange happened at that point, Calith was sure he had seen the Sun-god stand a few feet away and then he disappeared, but there had been a smile on his lips. " _She will need to fly to save them._ " the god spoke before he vanished, but it seemed only Calith had been able to see that because all he got from Glawardis were memories of her in the cave, looking after the recently born hybrids playing with a sun-adept.

Calith shook his head to be able to focus fully on Glawardis again and sent her a tentative smile. “It’s going to be alright,” he told her in a reassuring voice, before motioning gently at her back. “Maybe try just moving your wings first, getting a feel for it again?”

She looked at him, her eyes were still full of tears. She moved some again but kept her head close to Calith. Tentatively, she opened her wings and flapped it gently three times, she stretched them before she moved again to the other side of the waterfall to exercise her wings some more. After a while she approached the border, gripping the stone, she opened her wings and for a while just kept on feeling the wind lightly touching them. She was not alone, she repeated to herself. But that was still not enough. 

"Can you make a path of moonstone so I can feel the wind outside the cave?" she asked with a thin voice reverberating in Calith's head.

“I can try but I don’t know if I have enough of it on me what with keeping the egg sheltered.” He replied, hoping she could hear his voice over the distance. Still, he summoned the moonstones from his sword to shift and flow towards her, slowly creating a continuously appearing and disappearing path upwards and away from the cave.

She followed the path and stood there with wings open. Feeling the wind, having her primal flying instincts reconnect with her. She tried flapping her wings again and managed to fly upwards away from the moonstone ground. Then she descended, feeling secure as her feet touched the moonstone again. She took in some deep breaths before trying again, this time going further up and faster, but again she soon softly descended looking for her safe ground. Before she tried again, she looked back at Calith, he was there looking at her, holding the egg as a treasure. That was her priority, take the egg somewhere safe, where the White Paladins wouldn't be able to reach. She was not running away, she was going to save the last unborn sun-dragon, she would wait patiently for the hybrids to go pick her up, saying the threat was gone. They would all be safe and one day, the egg would hatch and the sun-dragons would rise again to rule the sky. With conviction, she once again flapped her wings, quickly going up, spiralling up before flying down, using the air currents to move forward, then she made a u-turn and landed back in the cave, thrilled for feeling that good after flying again. Before she knew it she was back in her human form, running in all happiness towards Calith. "I did it!"

The surprise at the sudden flash of light had Calith staggering back, throwing up his hand and almost dropping the backpack containing the egg. The moonstones came back to him at breaking speed to form a shield, but it was too late anyway.

“Shit!” He exclaimed, keeping his eyes closed and moving his arm to put it around the backpack as well. “You could’ve given me some warning!” He added after a moment, opening his eyes to test how bad it was. Surprisingly there was nothing wrong with his eyesight whatsoever, and Calith frowned lightly at the discovery.

“Wait... How am I... How did… What?” Shaking his head lightly, he turned his questioning gaze over to Glawardis who was looking at him with contrite worried eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked, waving a curious hand in front of his eyes, it was clear she was as confused as he was. "I am sorry… I forgot you are not a Sun Cleric." 

“I’m okay. Although I didn’t expect to be okay.” Focusing his attention shortly on the moonstones again, Calith made them return to his belt as they had been before. Heaving a deep sigh once he’d done so, he carefully moved the backpack over to one arm again, then lifted his hand for a high five.

“You did it,” He stated with a slight smile. “Think you can do it again but while carrying something?”

She looked curiously at his raised hand, then she smiled at him, reaching over to the egg. "I know I can carry this, I am not so sure about you..." her smile diminished then "or how I should carry you."

He frowned lightly, then glanced at the backpack. “Well, how do you carry that? If you’re gentle you could pick me up in your claw?”

"When I fled the Amaranth Island I held the egg in my mouth. When I fled from the earth dragons, it was still in my mouth, while I tried to embrace the other three eggs. It was difficult and painful to fly like that." she replied and again without warning, she quickly stepped away and changed into her true form. Then she approached and tried to hold Calith with one of her front claws, but that soft touch not only tore through his clothes, they also burned his skin.

“Ah! Damnit!” He exclaimed, instantly stepping away and putting his arms around himself in an attempt to lessen the hurt of that touch. “What.. I don’t even..” The words stumbled over his lips before he could stop them, and then he was looking at her almost annoyed.

“Well, that just made this entire endeavour a lot less nice. They could’ve given some clues as to how I was supposed to go along with you.” Sighing, Calith lifted a hand to run it through his hair. “Now what?”

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"I am sorry..." She wailed looking at him worriedly, quickly attacking the ground beside him to make a dent, then she transformed and started to gather water in the hole, "The water-scales. Put them in the water so you can heal the burn," she said, her eyes gleaming with tears. "You were able to touch my scales before… but since my claws are my only weapons I guess I can't hold you."

She then looked at Calith from below, her eyes moving to the moonstone, an idea formed. "Maybe if a grab on that, I can carry you. Shape it in a way I can grab you!" she concluded, berating herself for not thinking about that, but once again wondering, she had held a sun cleric once when he fell from the mountain, could it be that she couldn't hold Calith because he was a half-elf? She had never tried to hold elves before.

When the wound was healed and the water-scales back in his backpack, Calith shaped the moonstone in his shoulder so it could secure both backpacks and himself on Glawardis front claws. She walked to the border one more time, now filled with the security, she opened her wings and flew away from the Crown. Taking the currents she flew at a comfortable distance from the ground, enough to be away from the earth-dragons she could sense were paying attention to her every move, but what actually surprised her was the fact that platinum-dragons were living upper the Brarehem Mountains. They started to chase her and for a moment she panicked. 

The platinum dragons tried to attack her, but every time they got too close she would shine brightly to disorient them. But dragons were more resistant to that tactic than any other species, so it was a matter of minutes before they were surrounding her. She needed to get to the temple faster, but platinum dragons were the ultimate race when it came to flying speed. It was a worse case that Calith couldn't help her since all his moonstones were in use, all he could do was to warn her whenever a dragon was trying to sneak through one of her blind spots. He hoped she could get closer to the temple and he could make use of it to attack those bastards, but the closer she got, the worse he felt.

He could sense the moonstones, but he couldn't grab on them because there were _too many_ moonstones. His head started to hurt, it was a naggy little pain at first, but then he could barely focus on anything. He felt a bump, and a scream of pain and anger from Glawardis filled his mind, strangely enough clearing it enough for him to notice a platinum dragon had scratched Glawardis's wings. For a moment she descended perilously close to the earth-dragon's range, but with an ultimate effort, she tried to fly higher. Platinum dragons were the fastest dragons, yes, but there was a limit to how high they can fly, and that was a far cry from how high a sun-dragon could go. She hopped Calith could withstand the pressure of higher altitudes, he was the only reason she had not tried flying higher yet.

As she expected, the platinum dragons kept circling her position, flying several feet below her. But now she was much closer to the temple, she hopped Calith would provide more firepower once he could use the temple's moonstone. Flying in circles right above the temple, Glawardis asked if Calith could use the moonstones.

“There’s too many of them, I can hardly focus enough to see,” he responded in a level voice, finding himself staring down at the temple trying to capture the number of moonstones he needed to help her. It took another long moment, but then suddenly he grasped onto about a handful, letting them shoot upwards in the shape of an arrow and threatening the platinum dragons with it.

To make sure they’d heed his warning, he allowed it to pierce scales a few times, scratching at a few wings as well and continuing to move it at them so they would hopefully leave them alone. If not he would have to start harming them more seriously.

The platinum-dragons were needless to say surprised at the sudden attack from below, that had been distraction enough for Glawardis to dive, moving past them in an explosion of light. As carefully as she could, she let go of Calith at the top of the temple, the whole of the temple was covered in silt and small plants, completely hiding the truth of its construction material. As soon as Calith was back on his feet, Glawardis shone again to disorient the platinum-dragons that were diving after them. With her front claws free, she could put up a fight and show them why sun-dragons were the strongest.

Her first target she bit on the tail and swung, throwing the platinum-dragons for the earth-dragons at the ground. The second target tried to get her when she was watching the first one disappear in between the tree. She quickly shone, gaining enough time to make a loop and grab her opponent from behind, her claw gripped the base of the wings and the platinum-dragon cried out at the burn and pain, Glawardis was almost tearing off the wings when she had to let go to evade the third dragon.

She looked down, worried about the lack of help from Calith. She was filled with worry then. Calith was on his knees, gripping his head in evident pain. Taking advantage of her distraction one of the platinum dragons managed to scratch her wing again, the other flew down to take the object of her worries into custody. "Calith!" She shouted in agony, knowing she wouldn't be fast enough.

Meanwhile, Calith had been trying to overcome the pain of having so many moonstones around him, it felt like that temple was made of hundred folds the amount of moonstones used to build Myr. He thought it was impossible to be able to take hold of the whole temple with his mind, but every time Glawardis shone, the pain diminished enough for him to look up and follow her fight. When she shouted, he felt her worry with every ounce of his being, but what made him able to overcome himself was not the sight of the dragon coming at him with an open mouth ready to eat him alive. Oh no, it was the sight of the other dragon taking hold of Glawardis and biting down at her heart-scale, that was her weakest spot.

"I am the Moon's chosen one..." Calith closed his eyes gritting his teeth. "I am the most powerful moonstone wielder..." he could see the whole temple with his mind, he felt the moonstones coming into his control. "I've been blessed by the Moon _and_ the Sun!" When he opened his eyes again a dome of moonstones formed right on time to protect himself, another quite huge chunk of it was taken from the temple's walls and divided itself in three on their way to the two other dragons fighting, two chunks further divided themselves into arrows that broke through the platinum-dragon's wings, it growled in pain, letting go of Glawardis. The chunk he had not used yet flew to her, molding itself in some sort of armour that protected her neck, the heart-scale and the base of her wings.

Glawardis fell onto the temple a few feet away from Calith, who quickly protected her with a similar dome of moonstone, then he focussed on the dragon that had been clawing and biting on his own dome. When it raised both front claws to hit the dome with all it had, Calith molded a spear and hit it right at the platinum-heart-scale, the spear didn't perforate the dragon, it splashed as if made of water, molded around the heart-scale and then Calith pulled it out, tearing with it along normal scales and flesh out. It fell dead over the dome. One less dragon to deal with.

The other dragon he had injured its wings, decided it was best to flee, but Calith was enraged, he made another spear of moonstone and threw it on it's back, this time it perforated the target and also tore the platinum-heart-scale on its way out. Calith brought back the two heart-scales with a smirk. Fourteen dragon kills. When his hands closed around them, he fainted. The moonstones went back to their original position, but the ones around Glawardis. When she changed back into her human form, the moonstone continued to mould itself around her body, now protecting her neck, chest, and back.

It was painful to walk back to where Calith had fallen, but the moment she kneeled beside him the ground underneath them disappeared and they fell a few feet. The opening closed and they were engulfed into darkness, their only light was that coming out of Glawardis. The sun-dragon checked on Calith's vitals, sighing in relief at the strong steady pulse, he probably fell asleep in exhaustion. She quietly removed the backpacks from him and put them aside, she picked Calith's water-heart-scale, then she held onto him from the back, resting her head against his back, she closed her eyes and focused her light on the healing-scale hoping she could heal both their wounds.

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	4. In the brightest, hour the day will be consumed by darkness

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When Calith came back to his senses he felt like he was engulfed into an early morning sun, he felt warm and relaxed, nothing else seemed to exist in the world. Keeping his eyes closed for a little longer, he basked in the warm and comfortable feeling, enjoying the tingle of it on his skin and allowing the memories to be kept at bay for a little longer. Until he remembered what had happened.

Almost instantly he sat upright, looking around, trying to figure out where he was and whether or not Glawardis was around. They’d been in the middle of being attacked by other dragons, after all. Had they gotten to her? Had he managed to help her properly?

"Ouch," Glawardis complained, since she had been holding him from behind, the moment he straightened up, she was forced into a sudden move and the wounds on her neck ached, the platinum-dragon had managed to draw blood and she was not able to heal that wound just yet, she really needed water for the healing-scale to activate to heal anything other than scratches. Since her concentration broke off, the light she was emitting diminished away into the usual luminosity coming from her hair and dragon markings. But one thing didn't change, she kept holding Calith from behind, her arms wrapped around his waist.

Instantly he sank back a little, but slower than how he’d sat up, trying to turn his head around enough to be able to look at her. “I’m sorry,” were the first words out of his mouth. “Are you alright? What happened? Where are we?”

"You fainted after you got rid of the platinum dragons," Glawardis replied with a small pained smile, finally letting go of the half-elf. "When I got close to see if you were alright, the ground beneath us disappeared, we are inside the temple," She added. When Glawardis looked up, Calith noticed the moonstone molded around her chest like armour, with a strange reddish gleam reflected behind her on the temple's wall. "But the hole we fell trough is gone."

Calith made use of the opportunity of being freed to turn around completely, facing Glawardis as he did so and taking in her injuries. “You didn’t tell me if you’re alright. Will you be okay?” 

"I will be fine if we find water. My injury is not fatal." Glawardis replied, sustaining her smile as she looked back at Calith.

Letting his gaze go past her to the near-darkness around them, he looked up as well to see if there were any traces of the hole they fell through left. There was nothing for him to be seen, though, and so he let his eyes wander further.

“We’re inside the temple?” The meaning of those words only getting through to him then. “But there was too much moonstone for me to take in…” Calith noticed that he was no longer in pain, his mind had stretched and embraced the whole temple. Closing his eyes he could picture in his head every corner, every corridor, every room. Each level of the pyramid consisted of multiple sized rooms much like the Templar Quarters of the temples in Myr. It felt like this temple could hold all of the elves living in Eryas, their whole country seemed to have a safe place to hide. Maybe if all Templars were there together that temple could be an impenetrable fortress. 

With all floors mapped, Calith picked up the backpacks and guided Glawardis down to the ground floor. There, right in the middle of the temple, stood a tall grand hall, it's central point was marked on the floor. There was the Moon symbol engraved, but what was strange was the fact that it was inside a Sun. The same symbol from the Sun temple.

Calith recalled a legend his father told him when he was a child, the elve's birthplace was a land made of moonstones, where they served the Moon. One day the Moon and the Sun met and fell in love, covering the world in darkness as for a moment they had forsaken their powers. The place where they met was forbidden and hidden from view and with time forsaken by the world. The place they met was made of moonstone and could reach the sky. Could it really be Brarehem Island? But the mountains were not made of moonstone, he would have died if that was the case.

Glawardis had moved past Calith. On one of the walls, there was a statue of a beautiful woman, no a female elf, sitting on a throne, on her lap was a sphere that resembled a full moon, she was cradling it as if she was holding a child. She was looking ahead, bestowing the empty hall with merciful, caring eyes. "Who is she?"

Stepping up to next to Glawardis, he allowed his eyes to go over the familiar shape. “That’s the Moon Goddess,” he replied easily, dipping into a slight bow at the statue.

At that point, Calith felt a presence around him, when he looked up he had a vision. _Let me hold it_. He heard the Moon Goddess voice in his head. He blinked the images away, knowing he had to do it. Carefully he put the backpacks on the ground, taking out the egg, he walked ahead. He opened the sphere the statue was holding, placed the egg inside, and maneuvered the fire-dragon scales to frame the inside of the sphere, but still allowing the hall the sight of the sun-dragon egg. He closed the sphere and looked at his vision turned reality. "The Moon embracing the Sun..." Calith mumbled, finally realizing the truth behind his mother's words. The power he received was truly so he could protect the last Sun-dragons.

"It's so beautiful..." Glawardis mumbled beside him, for the very first time believing that the egg was truly secure, nobody would be able to seize that temple, not even other dragons. The way calith arranged the egg and the scales, being held by such powerful but merciful hands. She let herself fall on the ground, always looking at the beautiful sight in front of her, that little sun illuminating the hall, making the whole statue of the Moon Goddess shine as if the true Divine Lady was there.

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And amid all that beauty, the almost divine moment, Calith’s stomach let out a loud, demanding rumble. A clear indication that he was hungry. Which wasn’t really a surprise, considering he couldn’t even remember the last time he ate something. Glancing over at Glawardis, a slow, somewhat sheepish grin appeared on his face.

“Ah, mhm,” he uttered, before grinning more widely. “I’m hungry.”

Glawardis was a bit surprised by the sudden change in the mood, but she eventually ended up laughing. "Guess you should be hungry. The last thing you ate was those fruits I gave you after you woke up, right?" 

After saying that, the dragon walked to the backpack with the provisions. "For how many days did you stock food?"

“I don’t really know, your cousin did most of the provisioning,” Calith replied honestly. “There should be enough for several good days of travel I presume.”

Glawardis smiled as she gave the backpack to Calith. "That is good to hear. Then let us eat for now, can you bring some sunlight here?" after saying that she sat on the floor waiting for Calith to set their "table".

"Sun?" he wonders while opening the backpack. Lasseth had placed in there some dried meat, fruits and a couple of what could only be ambrosia, the most invigorating beverage in the world, a deity's beverage. For him and a dragon that amount of food could only last a couple of days.

"As long as I have sunlight, I don't need to eat other food." Glawardis answered quietly and Calith could sense she was being sincere. Looking back down at the backpack he reassessed the food, it could last him a couple of weeks if he would be smart enough. Closing his eyes, Calith pictured the temple noticing an intricate skylight system, water system and even air ducts system. Not wanting to call out too much attention from dragons and other animals, Calith opened one skylight and internally redirected the light until it bathed over Glawarids, she purred in his mind.

After a heartfelt meal, half-elf and dragon decided to explore the temple, they walked slowly through the dark corridors, making use of Glawardis light to navigate. As Calith had previously thought, that one temple had the exact structure and patterns of the Moon Temples from Myr, it was just many times their size. As a first procedure to give themselves comfort, Calith made the open baths on the ground floor functional by opening the water vault. The temple was build above a river, once open the vault would the the river flow through in full force, but both vaults were fenced to let water in and water-dragons out. Glawardis was more than glad to have such a huge pool just for herself to heal her wounds. After that, Calith opened only two skylights permanently, one to illuminate the bathhouse and another for the grand hall where Glawardis had already claimed she would stay all day long. He was not that stingy with the air vents, he opened all of them but made sure to create protections so only insects would try to venture inside the temple.

The first two days were very uneventful, Glawardis refused to walk out of the hall, she wanted to stay close to the egg, so the fire-scales would warm the egg at full power. Calith was getting bored out of his witts, he would spend a couple hours of the day in physical training, then another couple of hours creating weapons out of his vambrace moonstone. Throughout most of the time, Glawardis would tell him about the sun-dragons and what happened to her. She had lived for a little over five hundred years and she had a whole load of stories to tell. Calith's favorite one so far had been about an elf Glawardis had saved, she had made him sound so weak a pathetic he really loved it. That had led him to tell her his own life story. She was the only survivor of the most pacific and sentient dragons to ever exist, she was forced into a solitary existence. He was the most powerful moonstone wielder to have ever been born, but his birth from a human sentenced him into an equally solitary existence as he felt he had no place among elves, half-elves or humans. Alone inside that temple, they didn't feel solitary anymore. 

About a week and a half later, when provisions were nearly down to solely the three bottles of ambrosia Lasseth had packed, Calith had decided to explore the upper levels of the temple. Glawardis was basking in sunlight when he remembered about the moonstone archives, where usually the Templars engraved knowledge in the form of pictograms on the temples’ walls and books made of moonstone. To his dismay the archive room was empty, and there was only one wall with pictograms.

The drawings were very strange. The pictogram started with the Sun, directing a ray of light on what seemed a dragon. Following that, there were other six dragons, clearly the other races, each of them was surrounded by specific landscapes. The Earth-dragon was surrounded by forests and crops, the Water-dragon seemed to be glowing underwater, the Fire-dragon was flying over a volcano spitting hot wildfire, the platinum-dragon was flying over snowed mountains, as if ruling over impetuous winds, the obsidian-dragon was resting deep inside a cave which was glowing filled with what was probably precious gems, the copper-dragon was laying on a cliff-edge, overseeing a desert and an oasis. 

After that last picture with a dragon, there was the moon shining over a temple. Then a portion of the wall was blank before the last picture. There was a dragon holding an egg and a man caressing the dragon's head. The strange thing about the last drawing was the fact that the dragon seemed to be crying. Wanting to better see that one's details, Calith opened a skylight. The moment the sunlight flooded the room, the picture on the wall seemed to gain life. The man was covered in blood, the dragon was a sun-dragon, the egg was cracked and the shape of a baby-sun-dragon could be seen. Surrounding them were the ruins of a Sun-Temple.

Blinking at the sight before him, Calith frowned lightly, after a moment, stepping closer to put the picture to closer inspection. Was it a drawing of a past event, or was this a premonition for what the future held for both him and Glawardis? The thought of the egg cracking didn’t sit comfortably with him, so much so that he soon closed the skylight again so he could go look for her to discuss what he’d seen.

“There are drawings in the archive room of the other types of dragons and a particularly troubling one of a broken egg, a crying dragon and a young man comforting her. Do you have any idea what it means?” He asked her, the minute he entered the great hall where she lay with the egg.

But his words were met with silence as Glawardis was fast asleep. But it didn't seem to be a quiet slumber for she was groaning, her breathing was not even and her light was pulsing as if following her accelerated heartbeat.

The frown on Calith’s face automatically deepened, even though he didn’t notice it himself. Walking closer towards the dragon, the half-elf cautiously reached out to try and put a hand on the scales of her neck.

Glawardis moved a little, but she didn't wake up.

Finding no pain like he had the previous time they’d touched, Calith stepped a little closer to the dragon’s side and started stroking over the scale of her neck, wondering if he should wake her to pull her from the bad dream or if that was going to simply make things worse. 

His eyes automatically went over to the egg as well, to make sure it was still in one, solid piece.

A moment longer and Glawardis was startled awake, a pulse of light shone along with her strangled scream. "Merkadia!" she looked around, tears pouring from her eyes. "Merkadia is under attack! Undeads are attacking Merkadia! They need my help!" It was clear she was looking for a way out.

Calith found himself looking at her with cold certainty. He knew she spoke the truth, whatever was going on outside of the Temple walls she would know from her psionic connection to the earth-dragons.

“Glawardis, wait, listen to me,” he told her, raising his hands to catch her attention. “You can’t just go flying out, there are dragons out there who want to kill you!”

She sat up straighter, her scales bristled, sending waves of light and shadow against the walls. "I need to repay my debts..." she mumbled, it seemed she had calmed down if only slightly, she seemed tore with the choice. Should she stay safe in the temple while the Sun Clerics and the hybrids were in danger? Or should she risk her own safety to protect the ones she cares about? "I can feel the hybrids fears, I can see glimpses of their fight, the undead creatures have already destroyed the port and are advancing, only light spells can defeat them… many people have already died… The Sun Clerics are already tired… they need my light..." As she kept speaking, she started to look for a way to leave.

Calith took a deep breath, weighing the possibilities and the consequences their choices might bring.

“Alright,” he then told her, slowly pulling his hand back and stepping away from her. “But I have vowed to protect you, so I should go with you. Do you think the egg will be safe here in the Temple?”

Glawardis looked back at Calith, leaving the egg had not actually been on her mind, but then again taking it with them would really put the egg in unnecessary danger. She looked back at the statue. She felt secure, she felt she could do it, leave the egg there. After all, from all they had gone through to get there, she believed only Calith would be able to open a way inside. She believed that was the safest place to leave the egg. "Yes… You are the only one that can control the temple, plus only dragons can cross those mountains and the forest and they can't get in here. The egg is safe here, but Merkadia is in serious danger right now… I need to go."

“Alright,” he repeated himself, breathing out the remaining air in his lungs slowly. “Alright, then we go.” He couldn’t let her leave on her own, not after the vows he’d made to protect her. Not after knowing the danger she was going to fly into. And with the dragons out there waiting to get her, she might need his help to even reach Markadia, to begin with.

Looking around himself, Calith moved some of the Moonstone around them to be able to build a solid extra wall around the egg. The picture in the archives still haunted his mind and he couldn’t help feeling like something was going to go wrong with the egg in their absence, but he felt even worse considering something might happen to Glawardis. So going with her was the option he chose, even if it might turn out to be the wrong one.

Securing the egg’s protection barriers entirely to his own satisfaction, Calith only then turned to Glawardis. “Let’s go,” he told her calmly, moving to create a vest so he could once again be carried by her like he had been the previous time.

Glawardis felt a surge of warmth course through her at how careful Calith was regarding the egg, she couldn't understand why he seemed so zealous, but that didn't change the fact that she was overly grateful for his thoughtfulness. But remembering the trip to the Temple and seeing he was expecting her to carry him she lowered, laying down completely, her slender shoulders close to his feet "Can you go on my shoulders?" Looking at him sideways and speaking with an insecure voice.

Looking at the dragon in surprise, Calith pondered the possibility for a moment before nodding his head. “If anything I can try,” he replied easily, shifting his stance and leaving the vest be so he could try and climb her shoulder without a single hint of hesitance. As he expected the scales didn't burn him but sitting on them proved to be difficult and painful, so he closed his eyes and used some of the moonstones from the temple to make a seat and an armour around Glawardis' back and chest. He also made a simpler chest armour for himself, just so he could have extra moonstones for the job.

After that was done, he asked Glawardis to move to the center of the temple, once there, he opened the ceiling of the level. She took the hint and opened her wings, as she could see the further levels being open, she flapped her wings. Calith closed his eyes then, to look at the temple with his mind. Carefully he opened the ceilings ahead of her and closed the ones she had passed, once they were out them temple, it was completely shut off one more time. No one would be able to get in.

On the other hand, Glawardis flew up and higher, to the point of the sky only Sun-dragons could reach. Calith didn't like much that altitude, but he could withstand. If that was safer for her, then he would grit his teeth and breath in slowly. When they were half-way towards the Brarehem Crown, she spoke her concern. There was something strange about the sun. There was a circular black shape covering more than half of the sun. That was why it had been darkening fast, even though they were just a little past noon. That was also why the Clerics were getting weaker, without the sun they can't perform light spells. Glawardis felt her own energy faltering, while Calith noticed small cracks appearing on his seat. Why were the moonstones getting weaker?

When they finally reached Merkadia, after flying over the Crown, the sun was completely blocked by the dark shape and half of the city was on fire. The clerics were desperately trying to cast spells, but only the three hybrids were still shooting light beams at the undead, skeletons covered in sea plants and corals. Calith had only heard stories about the 'rise of the dead' spell. Apparently, only certain mages could perform those. It was said that the mage had to call upon a strong feeling of the dead, so it would become animated and strike against whoever the mage wanted. From the looks of it, all the undead attacking Merkadia had died crossing the sea, Calith pondered he could have been one of them if that water-dragon a long time ago had succeeded in destroying the ship in which he was traveling. Even when he boarded to Merkadia, he was welcomed by some warriors that had traveled with him before. Those that died at the sea, had plenty of usable feelings to be reanimated. But why attacking Merkadia? It was the most desired destination for most travelers and dreamers of adventures. Why destroy it?

Calith's thoughts were interrupted by Glawardis suddenly diving down. She shone brightly, she was like a substitute sun, at her light and presence the Clerics were once again able to cast spells. Glawardis flew against the undead line, claws, wings, and tail attacked her enemies destroying quite a few before she pulled up in the sky. She started to fly in circles over the enemy lines, trying to find another good point to attack directly. All the while she kept shining brightly.

Calith noticed then that the cracks in the moonstone had disappeared. An idea formed then. Disposing himself of his armour, he changed the moonstones into a gigantic lens, he placed it a few feet away from Glawardis, floating mid-air, it directed the portion of the light that hit it into a beam that Calith redirected against the undead. 

The sudden flare from above scared the people fighting on the ground, but they welcomed the blessing, not knowing what exactly was happening. Glawardis kept shining brightly, taking from within herself all the energy she could muster. She really made a great duo with the half-elf, she had never been so glad to have moonstone on her side of the battlefield. Calith kept controlling the direction of the light beam, setting ablaze skeletons and ruins alike.

Noticing that Glawardis was overworking herself, Calith divided the lens into three smaller lenses so he could destroy more enemies quicker. He was very worried about how her heart-scale started to flicker. He looked up, angry at whatever was happening to the sun. But to his surprise, the dark circle had started to move, little by little the sun appeared again. 

When half of the sun was once again shining brightly, the last undead was finished off. Knowing that she had saved the ones she loved, Glawardis stopped shining, allowing herself to fall down, she was very tired. Calith panicked for a few seconds, but Glawardis managed to pull herself and land, even if it was a clumsy and quite painful landing, at least Calith had managed to use the moonstones to protect her.

The uproar caused by the sudden appearance of a Sun-dragon was huge. Some marvelled at the fact that a dragon had saved them, others promptly tried to attack, throwing spears at Glawardis. Those had seemed to hit a stone wall, they had not hurt her physically, but they did harm her emotionally. Humans could be so ungrateful, that kind of reaction was what had never allowed her to show her true form to anyone but the Clerics.

Some of the White Paladins that had decided to stay in Merkadia, waiting for the perfect moment to raid the temple, had come forth, claiming that only moonstones could harm her, but they stopped short when they saw she was covered in moonstones and someone was sitting on her neck, cooing the dragon with caresses and soft words. 

"Who are you?" A paladin asked, coming closer, brandishing his moonstone sword.

Promptly the Clerics surrounded Glawardis, it was a clear defensive formation. 

Calith looked up as the words were spoken to take in the paladin with a calm expression on his features. For a moment he considered what he should say, then he squared his shoulders. “My name is Calith. A half-elf, Moonstone Wielder, Carrier of the Sun-blade and Protector of the Sun-dragon.” A small, amused smirk appeared on his face at all the titles he could now use. Then his gaze became almost disdainful as he added: “Who are you?”

The Paladin stared dumbfounded for a moment, half-elf and moonstone wielder didn't fit quite well with his knowledge about elves, but considering the last two titles, he started to laugh. Were the sun clerics that desperate to pick up a rebelling half-elf to put in their front line? "Right, pretty boy. I am an Arch Paladin of the White Order of Justice..."

“Why thank you for calling me pretty. Although admittedly compared to you everyone is, so I’m sure you use this compliment often,” Calith easily interrupted, his smile turning saccharinely sweet - and clearly as fake as it could ever be. “Was there anything you needed of us or were you just wasting air for the fun of it?”

The Paladin saw red, his hatred towards Calith was now evident. He ordered his subalterns to attack with a loud battle cry. The small group of eight Paladins rampaged in Glawardis direction. Most of the people nearby had stepped back to watch the fight between the Order of Justice and the Sun Order. The tension was huge since many in Merkadia were adepts of the Sun, so while they feared and despised dragons they also swore loyalty to the Clerics, especially after the White Order of Justice raided the Dawn Temple.

The Clerics readied their staffs, the hybrids positioned themselves behind Calith so they could protect Glawardis, while Calith himself decided he could humiliate those petty humans further. He simply used the moonstone of his own armour to create a dome, very thin and translucent, with delicate little replicas of the Sun Order Symbol adorning it. With the dome, he set a barrier around all clerics, the hybrids, Glawardis and himself. 

Usually, things made of moonstone that delicate were as frail as they looked, but the true strength of anything made out of moonstone was in the mind of its wielder. The White Paladins soon learned that when their swords crashed against the dome and it stood unscathed.

“Oh, my,” Calith spoke in clear mockery. “It seems you didn’t bring big enough swords, gentlemen. Perhaps you might try yelling at us and glaring from over there. Who knows, maybe we’ll collapse from sheer boredom in a little while,” His expression darkened after those words. “Either you get the hell out of here, or I’ll single-handedly show you how to get back to whatever hole you crawled out off.” Using the familiar moonstones of his vambrace to create tiny little spearpoints, Calith already made them hover right inside the dome, ready to move them out should the Paladins not realise this was a fight they couldn’t win.

The white Paladins still tried to destroy the dome with a few more hits, ignoring as best as they could Calith's mockery. "Dragons should be obliterated for the good of other races!" The Arc Paladin shouted. "They are protecting vile creatures that destroy our homes, eat our cattery and even our own families! Look at what this dragon did to Merkadia! I am sure it was it that called out the undead!"

If he could get the people to hold arms and back them up, the clerics would be the ones to back off, for their sacred vow of not killing. They had succeeded with that strategy at the Dawn Temple, why wouldn't the Twilight fall for the same trick?

"Where are the records of Sun-dragons ever flying off the Amaranth Island to attack any city or village?" Caedor asked, sure the other dragons were not friendly, but the reason they existed was far beyond mere humans thoughts. "Instead of trying to eradicate the dragons that never harmed you, you went out of your way to kill the only species of dragons that were pacific. Where is the Justice in that?"

After his words, the paladins stopped. "They were the ones commanding the attacks! We all know the sun-dragons were flying off the Amaranth Grave! They were creating hybrids with other races to make them even stronger so we would be the ones destroyed!"

After those words, a tomato hit the back of his head. "We all saw what this dragon did to Merkadia! It saved us!" an elderly woman shouted. And with that, arguments started left and right. Those loyal to the Sun Order started fighting with those harbouring ill feelings towards dragons.

Amongst the ruckus, the white paladins started attacking the dome again.

Calith sighed deeply, shaking his head at the utter uselessness of this entire fight. “Enough!” He suddenly bellowed, right as Glawardis roared the same thing while stomping her paw on the ground to underline her words. Allowing the little moonstone spear points to penetrate the dome ever so slightly, he made sure the outside of it would be prickly and the Paladins trying to get through would find their weapons weathering much more easily in the process.

“Hasn’t this city seen enough bloodshed?” He tried to look at all the people gathered around them. “Haven’t the undead taken enough lives without all of you helping them out? You should focus your attention on rebuilding your city, on gathering what resources you have and putting things back in order as best as you can. Not on trying to murder each other over an ideal.”

Putting the Sun-blade back in its belt shape around his middle, Calith straightened up calmly. “We had nothing to do with the army of undead, otherwise we would not have come to help kill them. Those who do not wish to believe this simple fact may think as they wish. But anyone who tries to raise a hand to attack this dragon _will_ die,” His eyes automatically went back to the Paladins. “You have been warned, I will not waste any more words on this from here on out.”

"Let me see you try, kid!" The Arch Paladin sneered, hitting the dome one more time and with all the strength he could muster. He smiled in triumph as his sword penetrated the dome, yet the next second he frowned because he could not pull it out to hit again. After two pulls, he noticed with horror that the dome was absorbing his sword. The Templars that had given those swords to the White Order had told them only a Templar stronger than them could take control of those swords, how could a mere half-elf be stronger than pureblood elves?

He looked around then, only to see his underlings trying to hold back their swords that were gravitating towards the dome. While he was looking, an arrow point flew from the dome hitting one of his men, perforating his head. "Seven." Calith started a countdown. But the White Order would never admit defeat. At least the Arch Paladin would not. 

"There is more than one way to kill a dragon." the Arch paladin sneered letting go of his sword and raising his hands as if he was holding on to something. The next second luminous chains came out of the ground around Glawardis, they chained her against the ground, tightening around her neck and strangling her.

Her suffering didn't last long though, Calith immediately reduced the dome size so he could cast a layer of moonstone on the ground, he could feel the pulsing magical energy against the moonstone when it easily broke down the chains. Another cry of pain from behind the Arch Paladin made him look at Calith who quietly mumbled "six", continuing his countdown.

The Arch Paladin then created chains outside the dome, hitting it with all the strength he could muster, every five hits of his magical chains another of his men would die until only him was left. 

"I will come back and kill you! Just like those undeads I will come back and kill you!" he thundered, right before Calith killed him just like the other paladins, with an arrow point perforating his head. 

The people around the scene were watching terrified, no-one dared move. Caedor put a hand on Calith's shoulder before addressing the people. "Merkadians, you've heard the White Paladin! It was them who most probably summoned the undead, knowing only light spells could defeat them, hoping the sun-dragon would rise to protect the place she started to call home! The Sun-dragons had always been peaceful, she had lived here since she escaped the massacre at Amaranth Island, since then have you ever had any problems with dragons?

Paying no attention to Caedor’s words, Calith turned to Glawardis, to be able to put a hand on her scales and gently stroke her neck. “Are you alright?” He asked her quietly, then suddenly remembered the egg they had left back in the temple. “I have a feeling we should head back now.”

She nodded, trying to stand and get in a better position to let Calith climb back on her shoulder, but in the next second, she was laying down, and closing her eyes. "Am tired," she spoke in Calith's head. Meanwhile, Caedor continued to persuade the people, the Clerics also raised their voices along with the few survivors that had taken their side. There were no discussions or fights anymore, only some people reluctant in believing that dragons could have a heart. 

As soon as Glawardis laid down, Lasseth crouched beside her, also caressing the scales of her neck. "Sun-dragons take their energy from the sun, she consumed almost all her light just now. She is alright but she needs to rest."

Calith understood, of course, but that didn’t make the anxious feeling inside of his chest lessen any bit. “We also need to get back,” he spoke softly, keeping his attention on Glawardis rather than on her next of kin. “Can you make it back to rest there or do you need to rest here?” Worry tinged his voice, most of it for the dragon, but some of it for the egg and the uneasy feeling he had about it all. Even though he had no idea why that particular pictogram in the temple kept bothering him so much.

Looking into Calith's eyes, Glawardis started to feel tense. She felt it back at the temple, that he didn't want to leave, now he was too eager to get back. She didn't like leaving the egg behind, but she had decided to trust him. With him acting like that, she was starting to worry and have second thoughts.

"Why would you need to get back this promptly?" Lasseth asked, surprised with the half-elf's words. "With the White Paladins dead, neither Glawardis nor the egg is in imminent danger. The last time she used this much light, she couldn't change forms for three days, let alone fly."

"I was scared to fly," Glawardis spoke softly after that. "I just need to sunbathe for a few hours, then we can go back... "

"Sister!" Lasseth called reprimanding, knowing the sun-dragon would overexert herself.

"I am not that frail anymore, Lasseth. In a few hours, I will have enough energy to fly back," Then she looked into Calith's eyes again. "I can do it." 

At that point, a sudden beam of light coming from Calith's left hit straight at Glawardis heart-scale. It was Tordor, the only earth-sun-dragon hybrid that had barely spoken since the first time they met. Glawardis purred, a rejoiced little sound that made Lasseth chuckle. "Tordor, you are incorrigible towards your bias for Glawardis," she commented but in the next second, she was also directing a beam of light at the heart-scale. Images of Glawardis raising the three hybrids popped in Calith's head, and he learned, sharing light amongst sun-dragons was a display of affection and respect, but could also be a sacrifice. Once Glawardis had consumed almost all her light to keep the hybrids alive because of long rainy days at the island.

Yet something picked Calith's attention, some people in the crowd seemed to react to Lasseth calling the dragon "Glawardis". One was a warrior that had thrown a spear, the name seemed to bring regret to his expression, two were commoners that had already been on the Sun Order's side, three were warriors that also seemed inclined to side with the Sun Order, they readied their weapons and stood vigilant of the crowd, but one was even stranger, there was a cloaked figure half-hidden at the opening of an alley, at hearing the name, he jumped and openly stared at the dragon, it took a moment for Calith to recognise, what was his name again? It was the guy that exchanged the fire-scales for sunstones with Glawardis. 

Frowning at the sight of it all, Calith presumed that the man only now found out who his scale-trading friend really was. He didn’t think those people would pose a problem, but he still kept his eyes on them for a bit longer before returning his gaze to the dragon.

Glawardis kept laying down for about three hours, taking in the sun so she could recover. In the meantime the clerics scattered to help salvage whatever they could from the rubble of destroyed buildings, most of the people followed, but a few stayed, including all those that had reacted to Glawardis's name. At one point, a man came over with a huge basket full of bloody meat. At the sight Glawardis groaned, Calith felt she was scared. Then he remembered their talks over food, but before he was explaining her frightening sound to the now scared butcher, Lasseth was already speaking. "She doesn't eat meat, take that away, please." It was another scar in her, she couldn't see small slaughtered animals because it would remind her of the dead babies when the earth-dragons betrayed her.

The man nodded and quickly walked away, it didn't take much longer than that for a woman and two little girls to bring baskets full of fruits. Glawardis welcomed those with a little happy groan. As she ate, one of the girls tried to touch her face, which had no problem, but the other was more curious of her claws, which was a no-no. Caedor picked the girl up at the same time Glawardis quickly hid her claws under her chest. "You can't touch there, you will get hurt even if she doesn't want to hurt you."

Other curious kids came forth after that, surrounding Glawardis and asking to sit on her as the cool uncle did. Glawardis had never played with human kids, but somehow she felt like they were as curious and cute as the hybrids when they were babies. Nobody was scared of her and as long as the kids were kept away from her claws everything was fine.

At one point only the kids' mothers were still there with those that had reacted to Glawardis name, why were they still there? Suddenly, dragon shadows appeared on the ground. Those men came closer, including the suspicious dude. Everybody looked up and saw two dragons flying in circles over where Glawardis was, but only Calith and the Hybrids could see those two dragons were strange. One was red, the other was pitch black but they both had some sort of luminescence.

Calith was instantly on edge, the belt turning into the Sword again, solidly held in his hand, while his eyes scanned the sky for other shapes. His muscles were tense, every part of him ready to respond to the possible danger, ready to create another dome if necessary or attack the dragons. Protecting her was both his duty as something he felt like he owed the Sun-dragon, after all.

But the two dragons didn't come down, nor attacked at any other part of the city, instead, they soared up higher before making a turn and going towards the Crown. Glawardis stood abruptly then. She was restless for a few seconds before she looked at Calith and her voice reached his mind. "I think they are hybrids… they know about the temple… it seems… the egg." She was undoubtedly scared. Every dragon race has this subtle connection with their peers that allow them to share information. She had that connection with the hybrids even though it was unstable at times and much less clear. Sun-dragons could see with each other's eyes, but with the hybrids, she could only get glimpses of their thoughts and feelings. From those two up in the sky she could almost hear their fear the egg will be destroyed. 

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The only thing he needed was the small mention of the egg for Calith’s ungrounded fears to return in tenfold. Still, he couldn’t lose his cool right then, especially not with Glawardis on the verge of panic as well. “We have to leave,” was all he, therefore, said, looking at the Sun-dragon for confirmation before he would climb back on her so they could fly off. The two of them shared one last moment of eye contact before she was laying back down, he instantly climbed up and on the next second Glawardis jumped, strongly flapping her wings and sending everybody on the ground a few feet away.

The hybrids didn't get that glimpse of information, they were rendered speechless and worried for they knew Glawardis was still too weak to fly off like that. Knowing they couldn't be discovered just yet, they set on a run for the cave Glawardis used to call home, from there they could change and fly off after her, what they didn't expect was to be followed by the warriors that had stayed there. They knew some of them, they had been saved by Glawardis when they were on their way to the temple, to get a sun-blade. It seemed they were ready to repay their debts.

Up on the sky, Glawardis managed to fly over the crown, keeping herself up the clouds, but she was feeling tired. Calith saw her heart-scale faltering, he knew she needed more time under the sun. If only he knew how to perform a sun blessing. At that point, his vision blurred and he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. _How you defeated the undead, like that you can help her, focus on the heart._ That was surely the Sun god's voice. Without wasting time, Calith created a small lens and redirected a beam of light onto Glawardis's heart-scale. She was surprised but grateful at the sudden source of energy.

They kept flying like that until they saw the temple. Calith couldn't see the dragons or any abnormality. The temple was standing tall, still covered with plants, hiding its true nature. He closed his eyes again, this time reaching his mind to the temple, to set further protections around the egg. But when the temple formed in his mind his heart clenched. On the western portion of the temple, exactly the side they couldn't see, three levels were destroyed as if something huge had crashed on it, after the landing point, the destruction continued towards the great hall, there the protection he had set were destroyed, the goddess' statue was no more and he couldn't see the sphere holding the egg.

He slumped almost automatically in his position on Glawardis back, his eyes still closed as he took in the size of the devastation the knowledge would bring to the dragon. Still, there was no way to keep it from her. “Fly around to the back, but careful,” He sighed, opening his eyes to look at the temple like that. “The temple was destroyed.”

"What?!" Glawardis cried out, immediately doing as she was told. When her eyes saw the damage to that indestructible stone, she flew even faster, forcing herself to her limits. "How did this happen!?" she kept repeating until she landed and ran towards the rumble of moonstones, she kept pulling on the pieces, frantically looking for the egg. But she missed the fact that there was blood on the nearby ground, and a trail leading to the baths area.

Calith’s eyes, however, weren’t on the moonstone, since he’d been able to feel it. Instead, he looked for anything off about their surroundings, and he soon spotted the trail. “Over there,” was all he said, pointing Glawardis in the direction of the blood. “Someone got injured. Maybe they can tell us more if they’re still alive.”

Seeing that, Glawardis immediately ran in that direction. Reaching the baths they were faced with three dragons of different colours. There were the two they saw at Merkadia, the third was of copper colour, it was heavily injured, laying in the pool where they had left the water-dragon scales. The bigger point was they were surely hybrids, they had the very same shape as Glawardis, which was a far cry from the shapes of the other races; their scales too, even though they were the exact colour of their other half-breed, the ones at the base of their wings and neck had their tip glowing like a sun-scale. At the sight of Glawardis, the two uninjured dragons laid down, as a form of respect.

"Who are you?" she asked softly, feeling torn apart. She was deadly worried about the egg but so surprised and happy at seeing other grown-up hybrids, she thought all of the others had been killed.

"We are hybrids that had been rescued by elves. We were raised in Eryas, in a hidden temple like this one," the fire-sun hybrid replied, as it happened with Glawardis, that dragon's voice could only be heard in Calith's mind. "A few years ago, we received the news of your survival and the existence of an egg. We were overjoyed. But when the Dawn Temple was raided, one of us decided to grant humans their wish and swore to bring the balance to an end. When we finally found out what she meant, we came here to warn you, but we were too late… the balance will be destroyed..." 

“Are you saying one of the other hybrids came here and took the egg with the intention to destroy it?” Calith instantly questioned after the explanation, he was very suspicious over the fact those dragons said they had been raised by elves in a hidden temple. His father had once been accused of betrayal, the High-Hierarchs claimed he had joined the Zealots of Light, a group of elves that refused their sacred charge as judges of the world, claiming the light the elves were truly meant to protect was something else.

"Have you ever heard of the rebirth cruse?" the fire-sun dragon asked. "It's a summoning ritual that requires an infant sacrifice in order to bring back from the dead the almighty of a race. She will sacrifice the egg in order to bring back the Primal Sun. If she succeeds, the balance will be broken, the Primal Sun will bring only destruction to all races."

"We still… have… chance..." the injured dragon mumbled. "She needs… moon..." but after saying that the female dragon fainted.

"She needs sunlight!" the obsidian-sun hybrid cried, her voice was also clearly female.

Frowning slightly at the sight, Calith used the moonstone present to make another one of the lenses like the one he had used to give Glawardis the strength to fly to the temple. Considering they weren’t up in the sky, he required a few more in order to be able to bring the sunlight down to be aimed at the fainted dragon. Luckily there was more than enough moonstone present for him to use, enabling him to create a lens so big the shine of it ended up including all of the dragons present, recharging all four of them at the same time. And the tan he was going to get from standing in that same sunlight was just going to have to be worth it.

"What does it mean? Why she needs the moon?" Glawardis asked worriedly, walking closer, wanting to help with her own light.

"An eclipse… Just like she used the sun's eclipse to distract you and steal the egg, she needs the moon eclipse to perform the ritual. But we don't know where or when it will happen… but she knows..." the fire-sun explained.

Calith just stared in horror at the fire-sun dragon, seeing how all of his previous worries about the egg being stolen or destroyed were coming true. He should have stayed behind, but then staying behind might have been the thing that killed Glawardis. At least now they still had a chance to save the egg, if only they could figure out when the moon eclipse would be and where the dragon had taken it.

"The elves kept an extensive library at the temple, with books from all over. She stole a book when she left, it had predictions for when the eclipses would take place." the copper-sun dragon informed. Some of us went to Sledald's library in search of a copy of that book. For now, all we can do is wait."

"This temple should have a library, right?" the fire-sun dragon asked, looking intently at Calith.

“Yes, there is. I was there just before we left for the city,” Calith replied with a simple nod of his head.

"Then maybe you have a copy of the book!" the fire-sun exclaimed, shining hope all around. That prospect made him transform from dragon to elf form because he knew the upper floors were too narrow for his true form. Glawardis and the other female hybrid followed suit, and even in their transformed forms, the differences were clear. The hybrids had no luminous hair, only a few blond luminous strands, they only had the luminous tattoos over their back and neck, originating from their heart-scale. He wasted no time rushing out of the hall.

Turning his attention back to the temple, Calith only then started using his control over the moonstone to clear the rubble and turn it back into solid walls. “There is just one problem,” he meanwhile spoke. “There were no books whatsoever in the library.”

The obsidian-hybrid stared worriedly at Calith. "No books? How come this moon temple has no books?" Only then did she notice that there was something else missing in that temple: elves. "Where are the Templars? Why are you the only wielder here? Why the Sun-order left this temple unattended?" The obsidian-sun dragon asked next.

Glawardis sat on the ground, dejectedly staring at her reflection on the water. "I was told this temple had been forsaken by the elves who left for Eryas long ago. I saved a templar once, he didn't even know there was a Temple here. That was shortly after I arrived here. It was probably that Templar who saved you and brought you up."

The Obsidian-sun dragon was clearly confused. "Elves are the Protectors of the Balance, it's their sacred duty to protect us."

That information clashed with everything Calith was taught. He had heard that the high templars were Protectors of the Balance, but that only meant they were supposed to intervene when stupid humans or orcs would do humongous stupid things. The elves only worked as judges on other races matters, that was why they were so arrogant… To the point they sided with stupid humans and stupidly gave out moonstone swords to help eradicate the sun-dragons. 

"The elves I know helped with the plot to destroy your race. From where I come, the elves who protected you are considered heretics. Who brought you up taught you nothing about the world?" Calith replied, thinking that those stupid elves had most probably pissed the Moon Goddess for a very long time for her to give him such a chance to throw shit on their faces. 

Thinking about the goddess, Calith went back to the great hall. After ensuring their safety once more, Calith directed his mind to rebuild the Statue, asking her why, if she had wanted to hold the egg, why she didn't protect it?

Calith lost control over the moonstone, the Statue re-shaped itself. _That egg was already lost from the beginning,_ The goddess spoke to Calith again. _You will not be able to save the egg or the pure bloodline of the sun-dragons. But Glawardis' light cannot fade until the mixed bloodline establishes itself. You were chosen, Calith, to hold in your hands all of the seven hearts and lead the races back into balance. When the day comes, use this armour to conquer the seventh heart and protect the last sun._

Now the Moon Goddess was standing in front of him, her frail simple dress was now covered by an elegant elven armour, on the chest was a crest. There were a tree and indentations with the shapes of the seven heart-scales, the Sun-scale shape was right in the middle of the roots, the other six shapes marked the end of the tree branches.

At that point, Calith heard the fire-sun-hybrid calling out his name. His voice had echoed through the halls at the same time it sounded clearly inside his head. His voice was excited, what was not to be expected considering he had made his way to an empty library.

The half-elf made his way to the hybrid dragon, not forgetting to take one of Glawardis mantles to cover the nakedness of the other. 

"The library is not empty! It is locked!" The fire-sun spoke excitedly, becoming Calith to come closer and faster. That was a shock.

"It is empty." Calith deadpanned, stopping right at the door beside the fire-sun.

"No. It is not." the dragon replied, pointed at the ground. "See those rectangular marks on the ground? Those are locked shelves. All the books in this library are made of moonstone! I am sure!" right in the middle of the room, there were four rectangular shapes aligned.

Calith rolled his eyes before closing them. With his mind's eye, he stopped looking at the whole temple to focus his whole being in that particular room. It was amazing. As the dragon said, there were shelves, but there were no books. Instead, there were ancient scrolls, like those humans used to write on before paper was invented. Yet those were clearly not human-made as they were completely made in moonstone. There were four shelves, on each shelf, there was only one scroll. Bringing them up from the ground, Calith had his eyes stare at the incredible details his mind had hidden from him.

The shelf, or it was better to say the hidden altar, holding the scroll was as tall as the room. It had some sort of a magical circle with six positions, in the middle of the circle was laid the scroll. Calith picked it up. The letters were carved in stone, then filled with gold. That scroll was titled Origin. It was the story of the universe, how the four original life forces created the sun, the moon, and the worlds, there were more worlds out there, similar to their own. It read that the original life forces, at first, were unable to give life to anything. The celestial bodies they created were all beautiful, but void of life. One day, they decided to work together to create a single world, and finally, they were able to create life, first, they made the plants, then the many animals. And then each of the life forces created a special species. The force now known as Nephrite, the Forest Goddess, created the humans. The force now known as Rhyolite, the Mountain God, created the orcs. The force now known as Selenite, the Moon Goddess, created the elves. And the force now known as Opal, the Sun God, created the dragons. Each of those races was created with a purpose. Humans were supposed to cultivate the earth, the orcs were supposed to tame the stones, elves were supposed to protect the dragons who were meant to keep the life balance of the world. 

Moving to the second altar, Calith saw it had a different design. It was the tree, the same tree from the Goddess' armour. That scroll was entitled Dissonance. The text was rather short compared to the first scroll. It said three of the four firstborns deviated from their purpose. Humans started to destroy the forests and plains, polluting the waters and air as a consequence of their evolution as a species. Jealous of the human advancement, the orcs declared war for they no longer wished to live inside mountains and underneath the earth. Great was the loss on both sides until the elves intervened, it was them who divided the planet into three great continents: Eryas, the elven territory; Eldora, the human territory; and Orzarca, the orc’s territory. Considered more animals than anything else, the dragons were excluded from the treat, ultimately leading all dragon races to be considered the enemies of all living creatures. Disappointed with their first-born, Nephrite and Rhyolite abandoned their first creation to attempt life on another planet. Selenite and Opal stayed, unwilling to see their first creation perish.

When Calith walked to the third altar, he noticed that the fire-sun hybrid was standing there, studying the design of that altar. It was a map of their whole world. But there was a strange line, it was some sort of a "u" shape. The line started at the very top of the map in the direction of Merkadia, moved down diving the Klalm Sea and passed just outside Myr. The bottom of the "u" seemed to surround Siltryn and then the line moved back to the top of the map, dividing Eldora in two. What was inside the shape was opaque, what was outside was translucent. At the very top of the map, there was a date. Calith felt a shiver down his spine. That date was only two days away.

"Is this what we needed to find?" Calith asked almost dreading the answer.

"I believe so. I think this shows us where the Eclipse can be seen. But this is just too big of a territory! And we only have two days! Any of these cities can be found in two days by flying!" the hybrid replied, his voice was clearly in panic mode.

Calith reached out for the scroll, hoping there was any lead there. What he found was much more like a riddle. 

"In the greatest of the merchant cities, the last scale will be conquered. In the brightest hour, the day will be consumed by darkness. The cursed will rise seeking the death of a king. In the cradle of life, the last heart will be silenced. In the darkest hour, a new dawn will emerge. The moon will embrace the sun with death's touch. A mixed light will rise and guide all into a new world," Calith read, clearly understanding most of the riddle. "This first part talks about the solar eclipse, obviously. The second part must be about the lunar eclipse."

"The cradle of life. Is it Sledald? Damn it! It is outside the Eclipsed area. Then maybe it is Hallard, isn't that the city the humans claim to be their first city?" The hybrid questioned, but then he looked back at Merkadia, the busiest city in the world, the city every human, elf or Orc dreamt to visit at least once.

Calith looked at the dragon, but then his eyes moved past towards the image on the wall. The sun dragon cradling a broken egg, someone drenched in blood consoling it. They were in some sort of ruins, a Sun Temple ruins. 

"Calith?" the half-elf heard Glawardis calling, but it was her human voice just outside the library door. In an impulse, the half-elf modified the image in front of him, erasing the characters, leaving only the background. 

"Did you find any clue?" the obsidian-sun hybrid questioned. She entered the room with Glawardis, both supporting a weak copper-sun hybrid now also in its elf disguise.

"Yes," The fire-sun mumbled in his distress. "It can happen anywhere in this area. Look." he pointed to the altar.

While all dragons were focusing on the map, Calith looked at the last altar and saw an image of himself, clad in a mantle that seemed to be a mixture of a templar code-dress and a sun order arch-cleric mantle. He was holding some sort of staff with one hand, and the sun blade with the other. There was no scroll in sight, but there was something written in the code-dress. Walking closer, Calith cursed loudly. That was the Templar Codex nobody allowed him to learn. His father died, without having the chance.

"What's wrong?" The fire-sun hybrid asked, only then noticing the last altar. "Hey, dude. Isn't that a little too egocentric?"

"You've been raised by elves, do you know how to read that?" Calith decided to ignore the mockery, there were much more pressing things to address than a stupid remark from a stupid dragon in a stupid elf form. "Can't you all just walk around in human form like Glawardis? That is more pleasant to the eyes." 

The hybrid dragons stared at him confusedly. "You were raised by elves too."

"No. I was _not_." he was raised by a human and an exile. "Can you read this or not?"

The hybrids looked at the code-dress. "The tender Moonlight is Sun's light, a mirrored love even in darkness."

"Say what?" Calith questioned, finally noticing that Glawardis was no longer supporting the copper-sun hybrid, but she was behind him staring at the wall, at the image he had altered. Did she know? Could she have seen the image from his mind and was now in shock? Calith put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her face. She was wearing a pained smile with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Glawardis? What's wrong?" Calith asked, softly reaching out to dry those tears.

Glawardis wrapped her arms around his middle, crying on his chest. "Home..." she mumbled and then Calith's mind was assaulted by memories once more, memories of her childhood. That temple was in Amaranth Island. The baby Sun Dragons used to play in those ruins. That was where she learned to fly. Her mother had put her in one of those broken pillars, every jump was painful until she learned how to open her wings and dance with the wind. That was the cradle of her life, and now the grave of her race. 

That was where the tragedy began. That was where it had to end.

Calith looked at the hybrids who were once again focused on the map, discussing where their enemy could have gone. He knew the answer but he still didn't know what to do. How could he protect Glawardis if he was supposed to kill the primal sun-dragon? Come to think about it how come _one_ freaking dragon could destroy the whole world?

There was just too much information, too much he needed to consider. Holding Glawardis for a moment longer, he closed his eyes and focused his mind on the last altar, looking at his image there. "We need to rest. We all need to rest. There is nothing we can do right now, so let's just rest. Tomorrow. Let's decide tomorrow what to do."

Surprisedly there were no protests towards his words. Silently they all left the library, probably to think themselves of all they had found out. They didn't move back to the grand hall, instead, they found a room closer to the library where there were enough places for them to lay down and sleep.

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	5. An unusual sun will bring new light into the world

Calith had tried to sleep, but he couldn't stop thinking about everything that has happened to him. Feeling suffocated, he walked through the temple, slowly moving up to the very top of the pyramids. The night air was quite chilly, the sky was dark and close. Calith laid down, his eyes staring at the almost full moon. He enumerated his duties. He was supposed to protect the balance of the world. To do that he had to make sure the sun dragons wouldn't find extinction. Glawardis was now the very last sun-dragon since there was no ounce of hope to save the egg. There is also no ounce of hope to maintain the sun dragon bloodline. That is where the hybrids become key, it is their diminished light which will keep the world in balance, therefore he had to protect the hybrids as much as he needed to protect Glawardis. He had always been confident that he can protect her, he had been confident he could protect the earth-sun hybrids as well since they had been clever enough to hide in plain sight. But a whole bunch of other hybrids? His confidence was now faltering. How could he alone show the world that hunting dragons was actually wrong? How when he had slain so many dragons?

This whole damn mess started because of the elves. They had forgotten their duty to protect the dragons. Three of the First Borns deviated from their original duties. Come to think about it, the dragons had been treated as mere beats. They didn't have a specific territory or kingdom because of that. Amaranth Island had been the closest to a dragon kingdom. Humans, Orcs, and Elves all considered the sun dragons the royalty among dragons.

Calith sat up. That was it. All races but the dragons have a kingdom, a ruler that the other races respect. That was how he could protect Glawardis, he had to make out of her a true queen of the dragons. She needs a territory, what best territory than one that can only be truly reached by dragons? Calith looked around at the forest, and far beyond the mountains that reached the clouds. Brarehem Crown is already her territory. She needs a palace. Calith looked down at the moonstone he was sitting on. She already had that too. That temple is her palace. She also needs an army to fight for her. That was the tricky part, she only had one paladin, himself. Calith stood and looked back, in the direction of Merkadia. The Sun Order were not warriors, but they were powerful clerics and they had silently created an army for Glawardis. He had been the only one given the true Sun Blade, but there had been others before him, who had been honoured a blade with a lesser sun-dragon scale. She had an army, made of knights, clerics, and templars. Yes, he should not forget the Zealots of Light, there were some elves with their head in the right place and they had hidden a moonstone temple, something they probably kept flying above the mountains, above the clouds. If Merkadians accept, the greatest of the merchant cities could be her bridge to the other continents. Merkadia and the Sun order were unclaimed, neutral towards the three forces controlling the world.

That was a solved problem. But to make her a queen, Calith would first need to defeat the primal sun. That was the pain in the ass. He was sure of it, the last battleground is Amaranth Grave; currently inhabited by the White Order. With two sets of enemies, there would be absolutely no way for him to protect all dragons, fight the Order and kill a freaking Primal Beast. He had to send the hybrids on plausible fool errands so he could fly with Glawardis to the place she should never be forced to go back to.

At that point, he noticed a light approaching from the floors below him. How could he tell her? How would she react? Calith messed up his hair as he saw the light growing stronger, climbing up the stairs to where he was. Even before she was there standing in front of him, Calith had already made a thin, delicate dome to protect that portion of the temple from unwanted dragon attention. That was yet another problem, how to make the other dragon races accept Glawardis as their rightful ruler.

Then he looked at her and frowned. She was crying.

Glawardis stood a couple of feet away from him. Holding herself as if she was trying to stay whole, she looked into his eyes. "Don't try to fool them. Be honest with them. We should just let them know they are not needed in the battle. Give them a purpose and not a fool's errand."

Calith shook his head. How could she know? But then he already knew it. "Did you see? My thoughts?" he questioned, once again messing up his hair. He was quite unsure how to feel about that strange connection between them.

"At first, I thought I was having a nightmare. When I woke up, I noticed that was not the case. All of your thoughts and worries and speculations were reaching me," Glawardis confirmed his fears, offering him a small smile even though silent tears were still falling. "That egg is my last hope, Calith. I don't care Selenite claiming the egg is already lost. I will fight for it, Calith. I can reach the island in four hours from here. If you help me with that beam of light, I won't get tired from flying, and I will be able to help you fight."

Calith sighed and grimaced. "It seems you already know what kind of purpose to give the hybrids."

Glawardis broke their eye contact to stare away, in the direction where the earth-sun hybrids were. "The army you thought about, Lasseth is already working on it. Lasseth, Caedor, and Tordor were thinking about flying here but stopped as they were being followed by a couple of humans. Now they are at the Sun Temple explaining everything they know, planning to fly here with those humans to give whatever assistance they can."

"That is not the wisest idea," Calith countered, looking in the same direction. "They are much more useful there, convincing the city of our cause."

The Sun-dragon nodded. "Send Sarthel there, the copper-sun hybrid, to help them, and also recover further from her own battle. Coldor, the fire-sun, and Daeris, the obsidian-sun, they can fly back to the elves. Convince them to come to inhabit this temple. There is only one thing Selenite is right about: the primal sun is not the end of things, but a new beginning."

Calith smiled despite Glawardis tears. He was about to comment on how she thinks fast, but the words got stuck in his throat as the Sun Dragon walked in his direction. She stopped right in front of him, reaching, she fisted his shirt on his sides, almost as if she wanted to hug him but refrained. "Thank you, Calith, for not even considering leaving me behind."

Glawardis was unsure of what exactly she was feeling. Throughout the years she lived with the Sun Clerics, she had helped and been helped by many, but there was something different about Calith. It felt like the connection of their minds was deepening each day, it was almost like what she had with the Sun Dragons. They could share thoughts so vividly, think together as if they were one mind, but the emotional wave was still missing. She could not tap into his feelings, though from time to time it seemed that Calith could tap into hers.

Looking into his eyes like that, breathing the same air like that. Glawardis didn't know if she wanted their connection to grow any deeper. When the day comes, she will mourn him like she mourned many clerics, but if their connection grows deeper, she didn't know if she would be able to withstand the void of his existence in her soul.

Calith reached back, softly holding Glawardis' waist, his forearms softly touching the underside of hers. "Whatever happens… We are both tied to whatever happens. Because now I am sure I was born for you, to protect and fight for you."

It was shocking to say the least. There were many times in his life when Calith wondered if his mother's words had come true. _Is this it? Is this what it means? Is this the day the moon embraces the sun?_ So many times he thought he understood, but there, holding Glawardis, that was truly it. Glawardis has all the power of the sun hidden in a human disguise as much as Calith had the power of the moon hidden in such a fashion. He never understood why he was born the way he did, the power of a pure blood elf, the body of a human with only his silver hair giving any indication of his mixed blood. It's because his body was made to reflect Gawardis'. They were exactly the same height, the same fairness, but where his eyes were grey, hers was golden, where his hair was silver, hers was golden. He was the moon reflecting the sun. He was the moon, she was the sun.

Glawardis frowned, but still gave him a weak smile. At least she was not crying anymore. Silently, they both closed their eyes and rested their foreheads against each other. Sharing their thoughts and knowledge, thinking and planning together.

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"Rise and shine, girls!" Coldor called out the moment he woke up. Daeris and Sarthel groaned, but they too rose from their slumber. The three of them looked at each other instantly noticing that Calith and Glawardis were not in the chamber.

The three of them rushed to the great hall, hoping to still find the duo, hoping they had not been left behind, imprisoned in the temple white Sun Dragon and Moon Templar were out facing the Primal Sun. They all sighed in relief when they arrived at the hall but then noticed that both Calith and Glawardis were using full-body armours made of moonstone. Calith was using the armour that was in the statue the day before, but Glawardis was using something different. It seemed to be both an armour and a dress, covering pretty much all of her body from the neck down.

"Ok. Now change." Calith instructed.

After a short nod, Glawardis changed to her dragon form and the whole of the armour changed with her, expanding and covering her weak spots in beautiful patterns. It was in the least, so to say, stunning.

"Is it comfortable?" Calith asked next, studying his work carefully.

"Yes. It's light and I can move freely in this form. It is a bit heavy in my human form, but I can handle it." Glawardis replied before changing back to her human form, the armour was shimmering because of her luminous tattoos as it once again changed with her.

"That was so cool! I want one!" Daeris shouted, running for a closer inspection of the armour.

Calith chuckled at the hybrid while Glawardis let herself be scrutinised with a small, gentle smile in place.

"That is surely something we all should have for this battle." Coldor agreed, noticing the pictogram in Glawardis' chest, the moon symbol enclosing the sun symbol.

"Once I am done with Glawardis, I will make you guys fine armours too," Calith replied softly, his eyes closed and hands softly holding on to Glawardis's face. Silence ensued then. Calith was making a crown on Glawardis' head. The center of the crown rested on her forehead, marked by a shape that was undoubtedly made to host a Sun-Dragon Heart-Scale. Swirls and little flowery designs connected the central piece to two spread open dragon wings framing her forehead. More swirls and flowery designs formed two side pieces that resembled a butterfly wing, but the swirls held three orbs on each side of her head. On the left side the orbs had miniatures of Water, Fire and Earth Heart-Scales; On the right, the miniatures were of Platinum, Obsidian and Copper Heart-Scales. Those side pieces were connected to a back piece by swirls and leaves and there, once again was the pictogram of the sun symbol inside the moon symbol, those inside another replica of the Sun-heart-scale. The side and back pieces were also connected by six delicate strings of thin delicate chains and beads, which restrained her hair until a little below her shoulder.

"Why a crown, Calith?" Coldor asked, his voice was low, almost scared.

"Because Humans, Orcs, and Elves will only respect the dragons if they see a crown. The only way to protect you, is to create an Empire, a place meant only for dragons and this Archipelago is the perfect place to create it. We just need to figure out how to get the dragons to accept Glawardis as their queen," Calith replied, his voice was cold, irritated. Opening his eyes, he looked at Coldor, then at the female hybrids "We don't just need to defeat the Primal Sun, we need an Empire and an Army. And we need your help with that."

Carefully, he tried to share his thoughts with the hybrids, showing them the plans. At first, it was clear the three of them wanted to counter, not agreeing with just the two of them going to the imminent battle, but Calith and Glawardis actually had valid points there.

Sighing, Coldor was the first to break the silence. "Having the other dragon races accepting Glawardis as their ruler is not difficult and that is the problem. The Zealots had a couple of texts about the dragon hierarchy. What do you know of the term _Drakin_ , Glawardis?"

"The Elder Sun Dragon, the Drakin was our ruler indeed. Whenever a Drakin died and another ascended the other races would go to Amaranth to challenge it. None of them ever won." Glawardis replied, she witnessed one such event when she was very small.

Daeris nodded. "That was some sort of ritual, Glawardis. The other races need the Sun Dragon's light so the power of their scales won't fade. Each time a Drakin rises, the other races battle it not to overthrow it, but to prove their worthy of receiving their guiding light, a driving command. The last Drakin commanded the races to breed hybrids."

That piece of information seemed to resonate in Glawardis. She was not part of the Drakin lineage so it was not surprising that that piece of information was not taught to her so early. But if the other dragon races needed their light, needed a Drakin, then it explained so much. She was stunned. "Is that why they are hunting me? As the last Sun Dragon, I am the only one eligible to give them the Guiding Light."

"Most probably," Coldor agreed. "And why they destroyed so many hybrid eggs, without a Guiding Light, they didn't know if those eggs were an abomination or not."

"Oh, freaking hell!" Calith grumbled, pacing from side to side. "That is why the Primal Sun is so dangerous. If it becomes the Drakin and orders the other races to a full out attack, the world will become a blood bath. Damn it! That changes so many priorities!"

The four dragons looked at Calith startled. "What priorities?" Glawardis asked, trying to access Calith's mind, but his thoughts were too jumbled.

"We need to leave _now_. No time for full body armours," Calith said urgently, already directing his mind to the moonstone as to give the hybrids simple protections for their heat-scales and wings, but he made sure to mark all of them with the moon and sun pictogram and hide as best he could the nudity of their elf form. "Coldor needs to fly back to the elves and bring them back here as soon as possible. Daeris and Sarthel will stay with the Earth-Sun hybrids as planned to explain everything there is to know to the people stranded in Merkadia. And we, Glawardis, are flying off to the Amaranth Island. To make sure no Primal Sun gets summoned."

Glawardis felt something intense burning in her heart, something she couldn't exactly explain. There was a tingly sensation in her heart-scale and a sudden urge to just hold Calith close. The only thing she did about that tho, was smiling because Calith still wanted to do anything in his power to rescue the egg.

"Hold your horses, bro," Coldor called, his tone alarmed. "We can't change any priority here. What do you think will happen if six hybrid dragons come out to Merkadia saying 'yo, guys, guess what? Now, this island is ours, get out'? They would never listen to us. They will probably not even listen to you! But you need to build that bridge if you want us to have any chance of making the other races accept us and especially Glawardis as a queen."

"Coldor has a point," Daeris spoke softly, seeing that both males were about to go out on each other and pleading Glawardis with her eyes to stop them. "They need to see Glawardis in this human form, they need to see we can be equal to them and have a _civil_ conversation."

It pained her, but Glawardis knew the hybrids were right. She reached out to hold Calith's arm. "They are right. I want to save the egg, but leaving right away would only jeopardise our future safety. Let's try to talk to them as fast as possible."

Calith took in a deep breath, turned around and stared at the Goddess statue, expecting to have another of those visions. It seemed the statue was smiling sadly as if telling him to accept what is inevitable.

"You just need to make us acquaintances, Calith. Just lay the foundations Daeris and I can work on. We will have the Clerics on our side and, if worse comes to worst, then we just fly back here and wait for the Zealots." Sarthel added, reminding Calith that she was still hurting from her fight the previous day.

"Alright," Calith agreed halfhearted, reaching for his backpack and taking one of the ambrosia jars. An idea came to him on how to lay the foundations and show the other races how important dragons were. "Ambrosia works on dragons?" the half-elf asked, pointing the jar in Sarthel's direction.

Sarthel grinned. "Works for the other races," she took the jar and then scooped some of the healing food. After she ate it, her tattoos shimmered a bit and she nodded. "I feel much better. Glad humans can still bless this."

"That high-quality ambrosia was not blessed by the Sun Order, at least not by human clerics." Calith winked, giving the dragons a preview of the speech he was already drafting in his mind. The dragons grinned back when they understood what the half-elf meant. That Ambrosia had been blessed by dragons, that was a very important linkage among the races.

Securing the rest of the ambrosia in his backpack, making sure the simple armour he made for the hybrids were morphable, getting eight huge chunks of moonstone for the dragons to carry, with all those preparation done with, Calith opened the temple for the hybrids to fly out, on Glawardis' shoulder, he closed the temple as the Sun-Dragon flew out as well. On the way, Glawardis tried contacting the earth-sun hybrids as she had done the previous night. She told them it was time to put their latest plans in motion.

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As soon as they crossed the Crown, Calith saw that most of the people stranded in Merkadia were standing close to the Desolation Bridge. Seemed liked Lasseth and the others had managed to convince them to hear what he and Glawardis had to say, but when Glawardis and the hybrids landed at the other side of the bridge, Calith noticed that most of the people there were travellers.

There were quite a number of Orcs and a few elves. Also, most of the humans didn't exactly look friendly or open, but he smirked at the way they were all divided and organised by species. There was a bonus too, Lasseth, Caedor, and Tordor were at the bridge foot with the Arch Cleric and a couple of other members of the Sun Order. With them stood the warriors who had reacted to Glawardis’ name the day before. They were clearly the first line of defence.

Calith's smirk deepened. Raising his hand towards the bridge, he first destroyed the poor excuse of passage, effectively surprising everybody on Merkadia's side. But before weapons or words were thrown his way, he started to build a new much larger bridge in another display of his overpowering abilities, the moonstone the hybrids were carrying were used to make it halfway. And there, Calith stood facing the crowd.

"From this day onwards, The Brarehem Arquipelago will be known as the Dragon's empire. We do not have an official name as of yet, but from now on it will stand on equal political ground with Eldora, Ozarca, and Eryas. And Glawardis will rule the dragons as their queen, their Drakin." Calith announced. At his last words, Sun Dragon and Hybrids changed forms. It was a good thing the Clerics had set protections so the crowd was not blinded by their light transformation. Glawardis stood beside Calith where everybody could see her moonstone attire and most importantly her crown.

The unimaginable happened. A Sun-Dragon in human form, the other three dragons in elf form. A half-elf of immense power protecting them.

The disapproval was instant, with most of the people expressing their opinion until one human shouted louder than the others "This is ridiculous! Dragons have done nothing but cause trouble and now we just have to accept this?"

"Dragons are beasts! Political equity?! This is a farce just to give more power to the Sun Order!" someone else shouted.

"We, orcs, hate this just as much as humans do. This is outrageous!" One of the orcs vociferate, starling humans closer to him. 

Seeing the increasing conflict some of the elves started to try and pacify the situation. "We need to dispute this within our civil behaviours. No blood needs to be shed." They looked warily at Calith, knowing they would lose if the half-elf raised his moonstone against the crowd. It seemed humans and orcs had already forgotten how easily he killed _eight_ paladins.

"That is enough!" The Arch Cleric yelled. "We know that what happened in Merkadia has been difficult for all of us. But kindly remember that without the Sun-Dragon’s help, we would not be alive." He added and the crowd started to calm and listen. "Remember that humans and elves killed her family! And yet, despite our differences, she was willing to help! The dragons deserve to be heard and I am sure at least this much should be allowed."

Calith rolled his eyes, knowing he was wasting precious time. "Did they really cause trouble?" the half-elf questioned, making a hand sign for both sides of the bridge to let him continue. "Let's go through some history lessons here," After saying that, he looked directly at the orcs. "Seven millennia ago, when the orcs abandoned the mountains for the plains, did you lose the ability to bless stones and gems into philosopher stones or did you not?" he asked, raising his right hand to his ear as if he didn't want to miss the answer.

All he got in return were a few grumbles because that was common knowledge that still hurt the orcs as a collective. He saw a couple of humans mumbling mocks towards the orcs so Calith turned to them. "Also, four millennia ago, during the First Strife, you humans lost the ability to brew elixir because you offended the Forests Goddess when you chopped down one of her sacred forests to make weapons, did you not?" He shot with a smirk because he noticed how the elves stiffened, they knew what was coming next.

The whole crowd silenced, only the sounds of people trying to reconstruct ways away could be heard. Calith turned to the elves next. "Now let me tell you something the almighty elves had hidden from you. Two hundred years ago. When elves helped humans genocide the Sun-Dragons, something very interesting happened. For two hundred years, _not a single newborn elf has been gifted with power over moonstone_. Oh, but thirty-two years ago a half-elf was blessed by the Moon Goddess while still in his mother's womb. And a couple of weeks ago that same half-elf became a Sun-Paladin, charged by the Sun God himself with the duty of protecting the last Sun-Dragon. Now can any of you tell me why?"

The silence slowly died as humans and orcs started to understand what Calith meant. It was a couple of murmurs at first and then the pointing fingers and mocking exclamations that the elves would soon no longer be the rulers of the world. To diverge attention, one of the oldest looking elves raised his voice. "I do have a question for you. The White Order said the dragons would rise to destroy us! All of us! And now you claim a Sun-Dragon as queen of dragons to rule over this city and this arquipélago. Why did you kill the White Paladins when they were just telling the truth?!"

Glawardis shook her head. "You claim to be protectors of the balance. That means you intervene whenever humans and orcs declare war on each other. But that is not the balance you were supposed to protect. The world is dying because you killed the Sun-Dragons."

"What bullshit are you talking about now?" One human shouted, leading others to throw insults at the dragons.

"Is it not?" Glawardis asked, shaking her head again. "Think carefully about it!" she pleaded.

"I studied a lot about humans and orcs before leaving Myr. I studied especially humans because of my mother. I read about beautiful cities that had rivers as roads, read about lakes of stunning beauty. But when I arrived in Eldora I found nothing of the sort, rivers became sewers, lakes irreversibly polluted. Even in your farmlands, I heard that with each harvest the soils become poorer, surplus can't be reached in decades and famish is becoming the norm in the outskirts of bigger cities. Since when has this been happening?" Calith intervened in the conversation, his voice actually growing softer.

The answer was not voiced out, but humans were very aware of it now. It started with the downfall of the Sun-dragons.

Glawardis looked at the orcs then. "Each year, you bring less gems and metals to be sold, each year the quality of your weapons is falling because you don't find quality metals anymore. I have heard you complaining many times that you've been losing forges because there has been a spike in volcanic eruptions, and the volcanoes not active are full of fire-dragon nests. Since when what was so abundant for thousands of years started to become rare?"

Again no answer was voiced out, the restlessness became even more evident as the dragon's point was coming across. It all started with the downfall of the Sun-dragons. 

"Not just that. Those of you who travelled the deserts must have noticed the disappearance of oasis and the increase in thunder, sand and wind storms. Sailers must have noticed the increase of danger in once calm waters. It is all connected with the fact that you killed the Sun-Dragons." Sarthel spoke next, finally bringing the hybrid dragons into the talk.

"There were some truths in the White Order's claims. Sun-Dragons were truly rulers of the other dragon races, they truly ventured out of Amaranth Island to breed hybrids but not because they wanted to destroy humans, orcs and elves. They did it hoping the other dragons' races wouldn't be dependent on them." Daeris spoke next, nodding at Calith.

"The dragon ruler, the Drakin's only purpose was to bestow the other dragon races with a Guiding Light, a magical life force that connected the dragons with the planet. Water Dragons were the ones purifying rivers and lakes, fire dragons were preventing the volcanoes from erupting, earth dragons were fertilising the soils, copper dragons were creating oasis in the deserts, platinum dragons were controlling the the weather storms, obsidian dragons were giving you metal and gems. That is what the _death_ of a dragon meant to the planet." Coldor spoke then, taking Glawardis' hand and guiding her closer to the edge of the bridge.

"I know what you are probably wondering now. If I am still alive, if I am the dragon's queen, why would the other races not have a Guiding Light? That is because two hundred years ago I was barely what you humans considered a teenager. There was much I didn't know about the other races, much I didn't know about my own race. For two hundred years, I have only survived because the Sun Order protected me, they raised me, they became my new family. I didn't know my own importance until now. The other dragons races do not acknowledge me as their Drakin for I still need to fulfil the rite of dominance, but once I do, I want to restore the balance. I want to save _all of us_ ," Glawardis spoke next, opening her heart and putting on the open what still needed to happen.

"And if you are still doubting her sincerity, and the sincerity of the Sun-hybrid-dragons in front of you, perhaps this should further enlighten you." Lasseth said then, nodding at Coldor and then at her brothers Tordor and Caedor. And just like that the three sun-earth hybrids changed forms, flying off the ground and then landing on the bridge behind the others, they did not change back.

"We just want to live in peace with all of you. When we said this Arquipelago would be a dragon domain we didn't mean to send you away." Glawardis added, awaiting, hoping the other races could truly give them a chance.

As the dragons spoke, and even after the revelation sun-hybrids had been helping out all along, the orcs seemed to have grown quiet. Their need for anger and violence slowly shifted toward a greater issue. The Sun-Dragon becoming a ruler was not something they wanted or would ever easily accept. However, now it was clear to them, the fate of the world seemed to be growing dim due to the lack of Sun-Dragons. Orcs have always had a huge sense of pride in themselves and their work, in the fact that they could rival fire-dragons over the ownership of volcanoes or obsidian-dragons over the deepest caves. It was not easy to convince them that those dragons were not rivals but unknown partners. However, they did not want their beloved home to be threatened by this issue and they were not so close-minded that they couldn't give that Sun-dragon the benefit of the doubt. The orcs looked back at Calith and Glawardis, trying to look for words to say. One orc, that seemed old enough to have seen the world prior to slaughter of Glawardis' race stated, “As an elder, I believe I am allowed to speak for most of us. I do not agree with this, with suddenly giving dragons so much power, however, despite the circumstance, there must be something done. Us orcs will not stand here to let our home perish. We will give you a chance to prove your intentions.” 

Then another elderly orc added “if you become a ruler, we must do what is needed to protect our home. And if your words come out untrue. We will fight you, even if it means our death.” 

All the orcs raised their hands and weapons to yell, “For Orcs!”

Listening to what the orcs said, a small commotion among humans began. Some humans were mocking the orcs, others were accusing the dragons and the Sun Order of a long standing conspiracy. "I do have a question for you, Braydan! I travelled with you, man, and I have even helped you kill a dragon! When the White Paladins were here, you were siding with them! But since that dragon bitch showed up yesterday, you are now walking around with the clerics! Siding with dragons, man! Just why?!" One young warrior pushed through to reach the Cleric line, as he spoke towards one of the older looking warriors now siding with Glawardis. That was one thing Calith did want to know. Why the change of heart?

"We came to Merkadia looking for ambrosia." The man started his answer but was rudely interrupted by his younger companion.

"I freaking know that! Tell me what I don't know!" hearing the impatient and enraged words the older man sighed.

"When I went to the temple, remember I told you a feather hunter saved my life? She is that hunter. I am living on borrowed time she gave me." The man answered calmly. Apparently some humans were still noble.

"She saved me too," Henry spoke at the point, gesturing to the other warriors with them. "She saved many people, she is the feather hunter who helps travellers through the forest towards the temple."

It seemed Henry's words set another wave of shock among the crowd, Calith could see the surprise on a handful of humans and elves. And it was the elves who decided to voice things next. This time it was a younger elf. "So... the Zealots of Light were right all along?"

That question only made sense to elves, Calith and the dragons since that was another little secret the Templars had managed to keep.

"Yes. They had been right all along." Calith replied curtly staring at the elder elf who was clearly very tempted to call out blasphemy over the topic.

At that, an orc scoffed. "Punny humans, arrogant elves. Really can't see why you claim to be better than us. We stand on our decision. Betray our given trust and we will fight you to the bitter end."

Glawardis nodded at them. "I am afraid you might indeed need to fight if my rite of dominance fails."

That had seemed to alarm some of the crowd. "What exactly do you mean by rite of dominance?" A human woman asked this time around, by her clothes and the amount of runes on her mantle she was most probably an Arch Mage. Her tone was composed, she seemed to be inclined on siding with Glawardis if the right information was given.

"She needs to fight with the elder dragons of the other six races and force them to submit," Calith replied, using the very rest of the moonstone they brought over to finish the bridge. "But currently there is a rift among the sun-hybrids. Just as the White Order wants to kill all dragons, there is a group of sun-hybrids that no longer believe the world can be restored. Yesterday… they stole the last sun-dragon egg Glawardis had been protecting. They plan to sacrifice it using an ancient forbidden spell."

The mages among the humans came forward, including the woman that spoke earlier. "Infant and forbidden spell?! Are you talking about the Harbinger of Destruction spell?!"

Calith nodded. "Unfortunately," after saying that he looked at the hybrids and nodded, then he smiled sadly at Glawardis. "We have a very short window to prevent them from casting the spell. If we fail to save the egg, Glawardis and I will have a tough battle up ahead and if we also fail that, then it will be up to you if you are going to lay down and die, or die fighting, because then the dragons will have a new Drakin that does not want to restore the balance as Glawardis does."

At the end of his words, Glawardis and Coldor changed forms. Calith quickly climbed on her shoulder. "Mages, please explain what exactly the Harbinger of Destruction is. Coldor is going to fly off to Eryas, to bring the Zealots of Light here," he said pointedly looking at the elves but also reminding Coldor of his private very personal request, "They will be Glawardis' Templars so moonstones will _never_ be used against her or the sun-hybrids again, and in case we fail, they will provide you all with enough moonstone weapons. If we do not return I wish you luck on your battles, if we return we promise you the beginning of an age of peace and balance. May the Moon always bless your seasons."

At that, Glawardis jumped up and ascended to the sky. Her voice reverberating through all minds in Merkadia. "May the Sun always guide your path."

From up there they couldn't hear it but some orcs and humans replied with ancient almost forgotten greetings "May the Mountains always give you shelter. May the Forests always provide your tables."

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To make sure Glawardis would safely make the crossing, Calith once again made a lens of moonstone so he could redirect the sun's light straight into the dragon's heart-scale. They were flying on a concentrated silence for about an hour when Calith felt the presence of moonstone. Too much moonstone moving in their direction.

Glawardis picked up the information from the connection of their minds and descended a bit, just enough for Calith to be in range to take control of the moonstone if necessary. And it would be. The moonstone was scattered in small pieces throughout thirteen mighty ships. That was the White Order Armada. The same army that two hundred years back had wiped out almost completely the sun-dragons. Glawardis roared in fury.

"They are too close to Merkadia! We won't make it back before they reach it!" The dragon voiced in Calith's mind in both rage and fear.

The half-elf just scoffed. "Won't matter. Trust me." He told her, as he put away the lens, a hand carefully placed over her heart-scale, as if in a caress. Then he projected in her mind a small plan. It was a bit risky and a lot show-off.

Glawardis flew lower, rounding the ships like a vulture in face of food. She was out of their attacking range, trying to identify where in the leading ship they could land. Finding a perfect spot, Glawardis put herself in place, shapeshifting midair. Calith took her by the waist, holding her against his body while enveloping both inside an orb of moonstone.

Their landing caused huge damage on the deck, enough to send some shards of wood flying. It had set the ship in a total uproar. In a matter of minutes, they were both surrounded by White Order knights, all of them holding on to weapons made out of moonstone. 

"Call out the Templars!" One paladin shouted. Good. Leader identified.

"Knights of the White Order, I present you Glawardis, Queen of the dragons," Calith spoke loudly, still holding Glawardis’ waist and keeping her close, both of them still inside the orb of moonstone, a thin translucent surface made of a complex composition of what was now the symbol of her kingdom, the moon embracing the sun. "I am Calith, High-Hierarch of The Sun Templars." He announced next, smirking as finally the three Moon Templars on board arrived at the deck.

The Arch Paladin from earlier scoffed. "None of those things exist. I don't know what kind of black magic you are using but thank you for bringing us the last Sun-dragon. Now that filthy race will be eliminated from our precious world. Attack!"

And there was the avalanche of knights against the frail-looking protections. The clang of moonstone against moonstone was loud, but that only made Calith chuckle. 

"You have destroyed my home, my family, everything I cherished. Amaranth is lost, but now the dragons have a new home. Know that I am claiming Brarehem Arquipelago as my kingdom. Merkadia remains a neutral territory, but everything else now belongs to the dragons and you are not welcome in my domains. Turn back or promise not to attack my lands." Glawardis spoke inside their minds, all minds of the armada.

What she received in return were mostly scoff, mockery and more intense attacks from the White Order.

"Impossible… how can protections so thin still stand?" One of the templars mumbled, "No Zealots of Light could have such control."

The comment made the three elves really look at Calith and they paled when they recognised the half-elf. That had made Calith's smirk widen.

That was the moment when panic started to grow in the hearts of the human warriors. Calith took control of the moonstone weapons. Pulling them out of feeble grasp and reuniting all moonstones in one huge batch a few feet up in the sky. The whole Armada saw with growing panic and horror as their weapons were taken away so easily.

"What are you doing?! Bring our weapons back! It's one templar against three!" The arch paladin shouted at the elves, who were standing there, paralysed in fear.

"We can't… He is more powerful than us... " One of the elves replied softly.

Calith laughed. "You elves never cared about me… I remember you from the council… when you decided that a half-elf with such pure power was an affront and you used all binding spells you could think of to prevent me from reaching my potential. You thought you succeeded. The binding had worked for a couple of years indeed. But you could never restrain me. My father taught me in secret for years, told me to hide what I could do because I was destined for great things. For years I lowered my head and let you mock me, safeguarding my life from your selfishness. I bet the council forgot all about me. But now it is time for all elves to remember, for I am the moon who has embraced the sun. The dragons are under my protection now. Merkadia has accepted Glawardis and they will not welcome you. Without weapons how can you defeat the dragons there?"

At that moment, Glawardis felt a sudden connection to the ocean. Countless minds joined hers and Calith's as Water-Dragons emerged, surrounding the armada in a menacing way. For some reason, those dragons were greeting Glawardis as their Drakin. Questioning what they were supposed to do. 

"Or how can you defeat the dragons here?" Glawardis spoke next, shimmering softly, her light resonating with the water-dragons, giving them a simple guiding light: protect the Brarehem Arquipelago, protect the Sun-Hybrid dragons and protect the Sun Order. Calith used all of the collected moonstones to create protective collars around the water-heart-scales of those dragons surrounding the armada, somehow knowing that by doing so he was actually creating a dragon squadron for Glawardis.

"Go back to Eldora and Eryas. Let the world know that elves are no longer the Protectors of the Balance. From now on, moonstones will never again be used to slay sun-dragons or the hybrids for that matter. We are not declaring war against the world. We will live in the Brarehem Arquipelago and we will protect it," Calith declared. "If you give up the idea of eradicating sun-dragons, then may the Moon always bless your seasons."

"If you never again declare war against me and my subjects, then may the Sun always guide your path," Glawardis told them softly. She changed forms again, the orb around them protected the knights and elves from losing their eyesight. Glawardis lowered herself to let Calith once again climb on her shoulders. Moments later she was once again up in the sky.

The White Order's Arch Paladin in charge called out a tactical retreat, demanding explanations from the elves as to whom that half-elf is and why he was so powerful, what were they talking about when they mentioned Zealots of Light and what else the elves were hiding from the world.

The water-dragons stayed in formation, for a while longer. To make sure the ships would change course.

It was only when they were far away from the White Order and the Water-dragon's minds were no longer connected with theirs that Calith dared question their luck. "What. The. Hell?" was all he voiced out as he once again made a lens to give Glawardis heart-scale direct concentrated sunlight.

"I know! I was so shocked for a moment there," Glawardis replied, searching in her memories for any particular moment in which she could have performed the dominance rite with the water-dragons and one particular memory dominated the others. When she first met Calith, she saved him from a water-dragon. Calith saw through her memory what happened while the poison was taking over his body. His last moment of consciousness had registered a burst of light. That had been Glawardis in her human form, holding him against her body and shooting a beam of pure light at the water-dragon, right at its heart-scale. In her memory, it was burnt badly and the damage on the heart-scale was almost fatal. But Glawardis had stopped, had shown mercy. 

_As I had shown you kindness today, you should do the same from now on. We dragons should unite, not kill each other._

What she told the water-dragon before taking Calith to her cave, she had said that as wishful thinking, but that dragon had taken it as a Guiding Light, since that day, she had been the water-dragons' Drakin without even knowing.

Calith chuckled. "We are truly destined for greatness if we are together," he told her, feeling his heart tremble. Glawardis had never taken a life because she knows the pain too deeply. She is there to give light to the world. She has a life-touch. Calith looked at his hands. He was there to kill for her. He didn't know if he should be scared of the fact that he didn't mind being her death-touch.

With the knowledge that at least the water-dragons were on their side made the flight slightly more pleasant as Glawardis no longer felt the need to fly at higher altitudes. But as the hours progressed their slim hope started to vanish. It should have been about three hours after they left Merkadia, the Sun was supposed to be bright and hot of midday, but it was already waning on the horizon, tinging the sky with orange and pink. Calith had no idea why that was happening, but soon enough Glawardis understood.

"Oh, no! I completely forgot! We are flying towards the Dawn Temple, we are flying against the sun!" She groaned, sending more strength to her wings so she could fly faster, fly at the limits of her speed.

"What do you mean?!" Calith questioned, worried that she would exert herself if she planned to keep that speed until they reached Amaranth, there was no more sun for him to help her maintain her strength.

"The Clerics told me once, the Dawn Temple sees the world's sunrise, at the same time the Twilight Temple sees the world's sunset. Each part of the world sees the sun differently, from dawn to twilight. Amaranth is right in between, that means even if in Merkadia it should still be about midday here in Amaranth the sun is already setting. What time is the Eclipse?" Glawardis tried to explain; her thoughts and fears getting Calith to bring forth in his mind the memory of the eclipse map.

"I don't know, Glawardis, there was only the date on the map." the half-elf replied, wondering if there was still any chance of getting there before the Eclipse.

That worry revolved around their minds for the next hour, but it was forgotten as soon as the first sight of Amaranth Island was seen.

"Moonstone..." Calith mumbled, completely dumbstruck.

At first, Glawardis didn't know what he meant but soon enough she saw the island with his mind's eyes. Calith had let go of his senses, reaching his mind to the island and touching the moonstone. He could map the whole island in his mind, but that was all he could do. That moonstone was completely different from any moonstone he had seen before. No… not exactly… The moonstone of Glawardis' and the hybrids' armours… to make sure the Moonstone would safely change shape along with the dragons, Calith had imprisoned the light of their heart-scales inside the moonstone. As long as their heart-scale was alight, the moonstone would work as a third skin.

Almost like that, there was light and life inexorably ricocheting inside the island. It was such a powerful light that Calith could not take control of that moonstone, it kept rejecting his mind, ignoring his commands. For another half hour, the half-elf kept probing, kept searching the origin of the light, that was probably the only way to get all that moonstone to come under his control. But what was even more amazing was the fact that he was alright. Back when they were first approaching the moon temple at Brarehem, Calith was in excruciating pain before his mind finally managed to overcome the sheer amount of moonstones the temple was made off. That island was easily ten thousand times bigger than the temple, bigger than anything made of moonstone he had ever felt before but he felt absolutely nothing. It took those long thirty minutes for Calith to understand the difference. The moonstone in Brarehem _wanted_ to be controlled as if it was desperately searching for a master and when Calith's mind touched it, each bit of it wanted to be the first to come under his control. That had overwhelmed his senses. Amaranth's moonstone was _outright rejecting him._ The light inside it seemed to be alive as much as it didn't seem to have an origin point.

"Why is there so much light in there?" Calith questioned, quite amazed. They had been flying over the island for a while now, all his eyes could see was rustling grass as if the substrate of the island was common earth.

"I… I think it's the Last Light..." Glawardis explained, showing him a memory of hers from when she was a child, she couldn't even fly yet. There was a portion of the island that formed a large bay, it was almost a lake of salty water. The Drakin of her childhood submerged there and for a while, it shone, the whole bay became golden and then the light was gone. The drakin never emerged. The water was once again a perfect mirror of the sky. "As long as there is the sun… we sun-dragons can be eternal… but if too many of us would exist, the world would become too bright and too hot… so we were given a primal rule… Whenever a dragon sees its grandchild born, then it is time to give its light to the island..."

The light of every sun dragon was there, locked inside the island… "Why? It feels so strange… so alive..." Calith mumbled but before Glawardis could answer they saw it. The moon darkening, becoming bloody orange.

_`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·_ ◦ _•_ ●◉● _•_ ◦ _·._.··´¯``·.¸¸.·´_


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